


Love from Outside

by Crouching_SunRose



Category: Torchwood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-02 12:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 28,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12726624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crouching_SunRose/pseuds/Crouching_SunRose
Summary: Still not quite sure exactly how these disclaimers are supposed to work legally - I don't think Weird Al uses them for his parodies, which I think are covered under fair use. Otherwise, everyone seems to be using them, so here goes:I do not own Torchwood - that's owned by RTD and the BBC. Neither do I own the Lucy-verse, which comes from the ever-brilliant Happy-rea, and is used with permission (please, read Lost: Outside my Universe and Beyond the Stars - it's well worth it. First time in almost a decade that I read through the night, all the following day, and halfway into the next night as well. If you like mine even the slightest bit, please go read the parent work, mine would be nothing without hers). Also, I don't own Cardiff, I'm pretty sure that belongs to Prince Charles or something (seeing as he's the Prince of Wales, right?)





	1. Stolen Moments

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Lost: Outside my Universe and Beyond the Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2409170) by [HappyRea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyRea/pseuds/HappyRea). 
  * Inspired by [Lost: Outside my Universe and Beyond the Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2409170) by [HappyRea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyRea/pseuds/HappyRea). 
  * Inspired by [Lost: Outside my Universe and Beyond the Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/339672) by Happy-Rea. 



> Still not quite sure exactly how these disclaimers are supposed to work legally - I don't think Weird Al uses them for his parodies, which I think are covered under fair use. Otherwise, everyone seems to be using them, so here goes:
> 
> I do not own Torchwood - that's owned by RTD and the BBC. Neither do I own the Lucy-verse, which comes from the ever-brilliant Happy-rea, and is used with permission (please, read Lost: Outside my Universe and Beyond the Stars - it's well worth it. First time in almost a decade that I read through the night, all the following day, and halfway into the next night as well. If you like mine even the slightest bit, please go read the parent work, mine would be nothing without hers). Also, I don't own Cardiff, I'm pretty sure that belongs to Prince Charles or something (seeing as he's the Prince of Wales, right?)

Ianto headed down to the basement of the Hub, to snatch a few stolen moments with Lisa. He’d emptied all the trash cans, cleared the main areas of the hub, scrubbed down the medical bay (again - WHY did Owen have to do such messy experiments on today of all days?), brought coffee round to the rest of the team, and no one would notice his absence for at least an hour or two - until they started having a hard time concentrating on their work from hunger. Then it would be time to order pizza. Again. 

Sometimes he thought about maybe just NOT cleaning up after them. Not preparing the coffee, not always being the one to remember the time and make sure there’s food so no one made a stupid mistake from poor concentration due to low blood sugar, to remember everyone’s favorite pizza toppings - what was the worst that could happen if he spent all his time taking care of the archives? After all, he was the archivist, not the butler, the housekeeper or Jack’s personal valet. 

It was an idle thought, one he’d never act on. And Lisa was the reason why. A good servant was invisible - and Ianto Jones came from a long line of VERY good servants. As long as he kept the team’s basic wants taken care of, no one would ever notice him or wonder where he was. Lisa would be safe. No one would ever come looking for him - to find that he’d taken over the lower basement to hide his partially converted cyber girlfriend. 

It had been so hard at first. Before the battle of Canary Wharf, she had been so ALIVE. She was always ready for an adventure, always eager to drag him out of his “comfort zone” and help him to “live a little.” She’d taught him to enjoy sleeping under the stars - they’d even shared a sleeping bag after he’d ordered one online - embarrassed to admit to her that he had no idea about “the great outdoors” She took one look at it, correctly guessed which “rubbish American camping website” he’d ordered it from, and teased him for falling for an American sales pitch - all flash, no QUALITY. He could still see her, perched on the top of a ruined castle on that ramble they’d taken on their last holiday from Torchwood One. Two weeks later, the “ghost shift” had… well, there was no point dwelling on that day. Everyone he’d worked with, just about everyone he’d known - gone. Except Lisa. 

Except Lisa.

He winced as he reached reached into the inner pocket of his suit for the key that would open the door that led into the chamber where he’d secreted the conversion table - the only way he knew to keep her alive while he tried to find a way to reverse the conversion. As he struggled to slide back the heavy bolt, his back and shoulder screamed in protest, every muscle was sore as if he’d been beaten - but that’s just how it was, ever since the Battle of Canary Wharf. He could almost ignore it up above, in the rest of the Hub - where he had his duties and the task of hiding to distract him. Not down here. Down here it was was one more reminder he couldn’t set aside of how little he had left of the life of Ianto Jones. He’d lost more than a job, more than his friends and colleagues - he’d also lost the knowledge of what it felt like to move freely, without pain. Almost lost the memory of it. Just one more thing he had to hide, if he was to stay invisible enough for them to leave him be to care for Lisa. 

At a touch, the door swung inwards, and Ianto took a deep breath before going in. He’d done the best he could - but was it really enough? Lisa lay suspended in the conversion table, a metal frame around every bit of her still-human body. She was hooked up to half a dozen monitors, it was like walking into the Intensive Care Unit. Every time he came down here, he had to consciously remind himself that she wasn’t dying. No, she was just the same as she had ever been - wasn’t she? Wasn’t she? Apart from being trapped in a metal frame that he had to leave her in because it was keeping her alive. 

As the door swung open, Lisa turned her eyes towards him. She smiled at him. A smile for him alone. 

“Ianto”

And now, for the first time in hours, his face relaxed into a smile too. 

“Lisa - how are you feeling?”

He took her hand in his, leaned around the frame and pressed his lips to her cheek. She turned her head towards him, her lips brushing his. 

“Better, now that you’re here.”

He raised his hand up towards her face - even with these long months of experience, it was still very awkward to move around the frame without jarring himself against it - but to feel her soft cheek against his fingertips… He smiled tenderly down at her.

“Is there anything that you need?”

She gasped in pain, and he quickly increased the flow of the pain medication dripping into the conversion table, where it would flow into her body to hopefully reduce some of the agony from the incomplete conversion.

“I would kill to get out of this bed.”

He wept silently. She squeezed his hand forcefully.

“Ianto, have you come any further toward finding someone who can help me?”

He shook his head, a single tear sliding down his face.

“I tried to contact Dr. Ranulph Glanville at the American Society for Cybernetics, but they told me that no one has ever created a ‘genuine cyborg’, that the field of cybernetics is a complex study of systems, not a ‘steampunk fantasy,’ and then they dismissed my enquiry as nothing but a ‘University Prank.’”

Her face hardened. 

“You expected help from the Americans? Ianto, I thought you were smarter than that”

“Who else could I try? Torchwood London is gone, and UNIT is worse than useless - and if I went to them, it would get back to Jack anyway, and I can’t let that happen.”

“There must be someone. Have you tried the Japanese?”

He wept openly.

“I don’t know, Lisa. I just don’t know.”

An alarm sounded in the distance.

“Lisa…”

“Ianto, that alarm means you have to go.”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“Go, Ianto. Go. Find someone who can help me, and come back.”

He stepped towards the door, but did not let go of her hand until he couldn’t hold it any longer. He gave her fingers one last squeeze, and rushed out - pulling the door to and sliding the latch without even thinking, as he hurried up to the main part of the Hub to see what had come through the Rift this time.


	2. Enter Lucy

By the time Ianto made it up to the main level of the Hub, the rest of the team were gone. He started to head toward the lift that led to the tourist office, but stopped to see if the monitors showed what the team would be dealing with - what support they’d expect from him when they came back.

On Tosh’s screen he could see the CCTV footage of the plass - more specifically, of the waterfall, and the stone that doubled as Jack’s personal favorite invisible lift. There was a figure, apparently human, lying half on and half off the lift. As Ianto watched, the rest of the team came into frame. They were walking “in formation” - side by side as if they were carrying a banner in a parade. Ianto thought it was bloody pretentious - but knowing Jack, that was probably the point. Impress the shit out of people so no one noticed that the great Torchwood 3 - outside the government, beyond the U.N. - was just a handful of field operatives led by… but no, thinking like that might lead to speaking like that, and with Lisa, he just couldn’t risk it.

When Jack and the rest gathered in a circle around the crumpled figure (it had been too much to hope they’d be gone for a good long time - no, they’d barely even stepped out the front door), Ianto decided he’d better see what was going on. He dialed the CCTV footage back, watching as the collapsed figure was dragged up in a strange reversal of a slump, then disappeared. He played it forwards again. Almost as soon as the person had finished materializing (directly on top of the lift), it collapsed to the ground - apparently in a dead faint. 

He reset the footage to the live feed - and watched as the figure sat up suddenly, reaching up and sweeping the hoodie from off her head. It was a young woman - surely no older than Ianto himself, with long dark hair pulled back into a plait. She looked around at the faces gathered around her - and Ianto could sworn that what he saw on her face was… recognition. Recognition and delight. 

Ianto swept out past the cog doorway and into the lift, which led to the tourist office - which he was SUPPOSED to be manning. Hopefully the others would assume he had been in the other room when they had made their way out through the office, not wasting time when there was rift activity to investigate - but it would be the height of foolishness to assume they wouldn’t notice if he weren’t there on their return. At least, that was what he told himself as he hurried up the stone corridor. What he told himself all the way until he opened the office door and stepped out onto the plass himself. Perhaps he was, in fact, a little more than curious about their latest visitor.

As he made his way along, he heard what could only be the girl - an English voice, rather nice actually.

“...specials and a bunch of classics. Torchwood 1-3.”

Ianto raised an eyebrow - this girl knew of Torchwood? That was unusual. As he came within view, he noticed her holding a notebook and a pen out towards Tosh. Meanwhile, Jack was rummaging through a bag that was shaped like a funny black pepperpot… wait, he recognized that from the archives. That was a dalek! 

Ianto froze. 

SHIT! Why the HELL did that girl have a bag that resembled… And why wasn’t Jack reacting? Ianto was scared enough of them - he hadn’t actually seen any of them at Canary Wharf, being a little too busy trying to save Lisa from the wreckage - but if the cybermen were afraid of them, they must be bad. He’d found out everything he could about them, after he’d joined Torchwood 3, and what he knew what terrifying! But Jack? Jack had walked in on Ianto’s research one day, and the look in his eyes when he’d seen what was on the screen - though he hadn’t said anything, Ianto was certain that the Captain knew more than anyone just how terrifying these creatures must be. So why the hell didn’t he react to this girl’s bag? Unless what was inside was even worse?

And yet the girl didn’t seem hostile - just confused. Cautiously, Ianto started toward the team again. He saw her pull back her notebook - apparently she wasn’t going to get whatever she wanted from Tosh after all - and looked back at Jack.

“Listen, if you don’t want to give me an autograph, that’s fine, but can I ask one question?”

An autograph? Now he really wished there were a microphone at the waterfall, so he could have figured out what was going on earlier, he was obviously missing something here.

Jack shrugged. “Go for it.”

“Why are you filming with Suzie? Are you doing a prequel?”

Her voice got more animated by the second as she continued.

“Because I personally would love to know more of Suzie’s role in Torchwood. Plus you get to see more of the others, we all missed them. Especially Ianto, it would mean that Ianto was alive.”

Ianto froze once more. She couldn’t see him - there was no way she could see him; not when all he could see of her was her long dark hair framed by that soft hoodie. So why did she know his name? Why would she be so happy that seeing Suzie might mean that he, Ianto, was alive? 

He tried desperately to think of anything they’d encountered before, anything he might have filed into the archives, that could possibly explain how a stranger could possibly have come through the rift already knowing, not only of Jack - that could easily be explained, Jack would shag anyone he thought pretty enough - not even only of Torchwood (maybe she was connected with Torchwood Four, or maybe something had come through in Scotland and Archie had been experimenting…), but Suzie and… and himself.

She turned to look at each person in turn - he blankly registered that Jack had probably said something to her - and then she turned around, and looked directly at Ianto. Directly at him. And for a shortest hair of a moment, he thought he saw her freeze, thought he saw her eyes light up, before she turned back to Jack.

“You are fucking kidding me! This is one of those hidden camera things to see what people will believe?”

Jack’s gaze resting on the newcomer was as intense as Ianto had ever seen it.

“Suzie, take her inside” he ordered, not breaking eye contact “She knows too much, and I want to know where those DVDs came from.”

DVDs? Oh, that must have been what Jack had been looking at in her bag. They must be really unusual if the Captain hadn’t even noticed the image of his worst nightmare (though Owen had once joked that he wasn’t sure what could possibly be so terrifying about a pepperpot whose primary weapons were a blaster that looked like an egg beater (and couldn’t even be aimed without turning the entire creature), and a toilet plunger. Jack hadn’t even cracked a smile, simply said that he hoped none of them ever found out)

The girl had said something else, something about buying the DVDs at a shop, when she stopped again, and once more looked around at all their faces. 

“You’re not joking, are you? Doctor Owen Harper? Toshiko Sato? Suzie Costello? Ianto Jones?”

Once again, it almost seemed to Ianto that she had to tear her gaze from him to look back at Jack.

“Captain Jack Harkness, the Face of Boe?”

Ianto could see that Jack was stunned into silence - whatever the “face of Boe” was, it apparently meant something significant to the Captain.

While Jack stood stunned, the girl suddenly grabbed the DVDs out of his hand - though he still held the bag in his other one. 

“You can’t see these!”

She looked around at the entire team, panic in her face - more panic than he’d seen before, though he hadn’t been up on the plass for everything. But then she paused for a second, considering.

“Well, Jack can see series one and two, bits of - but no way can you see any more than that!”

“Says who?” 

Jack had recovered enough to question everything - what was new?

“Who do you think?”

The girl raised an eyebrow at Jack - if Ianto didn’t know better, he’d swear that she knew Jack well and shared a secret with him.

Suzie broke in - apparently tired of being completely ignored. Ianto supposed that was something that could happen if you weren’t used to it.

“Why can’t we see them?”

The girl seemed to surrender herself to a fit of hysterics. 

“Spoilers!”

She didn’t seem to be able to stop giggling. To be honest, this was the reaction that made the most sense to Ianto - he’d never understood how people could go through sudden, unexpected life changes and take it coolly - or even more incomprehensibly, get a rush from the strangeness and the danger. 

Jack seemed to be staring past her, completely unaware of her hysterics.

“How do you know those names? No one here knows that name!”

The girl took one more deep breath, and looked around the team one more time.

“This really is real, isn’t it? Fucking rift.”

Suddenly she turned almost completely white, and collapsed to the ground.

“SHIT!” Owen blurted out.

The doctor jumped into action as she collapsed, but not in time to keep her from landing once again on the pavement.

Jack visibly came to a decision.

“We need to continue this story inside. Get her into the Hub and into one of the cells. Keep the stuff in her bag but don’t look at it.”

Owen bent over the girl, and easily lifted her up into a fireman’s carry.

He looked worried.

“She’s too light, Jack.”

Jack just nodded toward the tourist office, and Owen led the way, carrying her into the Hub while the rest of the team followed behind - no longer, Ianto noticed, in that annoying “formation”


	3. In the Cells

Ianto was emptying Jack’s dustbin when the excited whoops came across the monitors. He glanced at the screen - Their visitor was awake. What was she doing? It almost sounded like she was cheering. Despite his concerns - and they hadn’t actually been lifted - he couldn’t help finding her apparent excitement infectious. 

He grinned. “She sounds happy enough. Not the normal reaction when someone wakes up in the cells.”

He tried to catch Jack’s eye. The captain didn’t take his eyes from the CCTV footage of the cells. He looked thoughtful, even worried.

Ianto tried again.

“Do you want me to get her some food? I’m going to order pizza for us anyway.”

Jack nodded once, still not taking his eyes from the screen. 

Ianto sighed as he headed down the stairs. Just one more reminder, as if he needed one, that he was about as valued here as the couch that they all took naps on. There when you wanted it, ignored when you didn’t. Just because he’d worked hard to become invisible - for Lisa’s sake, never forget who you’re doing this for - didn’t mean it didn’t ache sometimes how well he’d succeeded.

-_-_-_-_-_-

The cheers had died down by the time he opened the heavy door to the cells - but as he moved towards her cell, he could see that the girl was still grinning. Suddenly he was a child again - his Dad taking him and Rhi to the circus. That look, that mix of awe and excitement and too-good-to-be-trueness on the girl’s face exactly mirrored how his sister had looked that entire day. 

She was watching him as he came closer to her cell. He suddenly felt shy - he wasn’t used to being noticed anymore, and this girl was looking at him as if he were her favorite film star. He took a deep breath, trying to regain the “butler” persona he’d nearly perfected in these last years in Cardiff.

“Hi.”

Good job Ianto, very professional. At least his voice hadn’t squeaked like a teenager.

“Hi.”  
Oh gods, this was awkward - why was this awkward? It shouldn’t be awkward - not like staring down a Weevil, or stalking Jack in hopes of getting hired so there was a place he could keep Lisa safe…

The girl spoke again.

“You’re really real, aren’t you. Ianto Jones?”

Why did she know his name? Why did she care?

“I’ve not walked onto an extreme practical joke and a tv set, have I?”

“No, this is real.” Good, the butler was back. He could do this. “I’m ordering pizza, what do you want?”

A tv set? She had asked Tosh for an autograph - was she from a world where Torchwood was on the telly? Now he really wanted a chance to talk with her, WITHOUT Jack’s intense gaze watching from above.

She said something. Ham and mushroom. Why did she say that? Oh, right, he asked about pizza. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Get it under control, Jones. He’s forgotten how nervous he always gets when someone actually notices him. He’d gotten so very good at being invisible he was having a hard time staying “in character.” 

He could feel her looking at him, and he carefully met her eyes.

“So, any idea when I’ll be let out?”

“That’s up to Jack not me.” Ok, back on familiar ground - he could work with someone asking for something he didn’t have any authorization to give. “I don’t have any say in the matter, I just tidy up after them.”

“Bollocks!”

What? 

“You do loads more than that, Ianto - don’t play yourself down. You might be in the background but that doesn’t mean you do nothing, they’d be surprised how difficult it is to live without you.”

She must have worked in a support job once, how else could anyone sympathize with the endless invisibility and irrelevance he so often felt.

“God, you’re Ianto Jones, do you know how many people love you in my world? EVERYONE who loves Torchwood is a Ianto fan, Jack is in a close second as far as popularity.” Distantly, Ianto wondered what Jack was thinking at this - he doubted he’d be very happy, the Captain thought himself the most impressive man in the world. 

“It’s like, the Doctor is my hero, but you - you’re so human and…”

She sighed and rested her forehead against the glass door.

“Listen, I don’t know how to help her or even if I should, but I promise you, when I am free of this I will stand with you every step of the way. If I’m in a position where I can help, I will help, I promise. You deserve your second chance and I know how much it would mean to you.”

She was talking about Lisa. She knew about Lisa. Could she actually help? Oh gods, what if she could?

“Thank you.” That sounded so inadequate. What else… oh, right, the pizza.

“I’ll order your pizza and add a chocolate pudding as well.”

“You really are a lifesaver,” Lucy grinned, going back to leaning against the wall the serious moment over. “I’ve gone a whole three hours without chocolate and I fainted twice. I need my fix.”

He started to walk away but she called him back. “Ianto?” He turned round and raised an eyebrow in question. “Thanks” the dark haired girl said simply.

“For what?” It was just lunch, even if the chocolate was an extra touch.

“Just, thanks.” She shrugged and smiled.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Jack was still watching the feed as Ianto came back into his office. His face impossible to read. Ianto spoke up, a little surprised at his own boldness.

“Maybe we should just talk to her Jack. I really don’t think she’s a problem.” 

Jack pushed away from the desk and fixed Ianto with a hard stare.

“She knows things others shouldn’t know.” 

“If it’s a TV program like she says then that would make sense. Maybe watch an episode to let her prove it.” He shrugged. Jack had been watching, it wasn’t like he had to recap what she’d said to him. He only hoped Jack hadn’t put two and two together to realize what she had meant when she offered to help with “her.”

“It’s not my job to tell you what to do.” Ianto added, hoping that the return of the familiar “butler” persona would distract Jack from his secret.

“No” Jack agreed “It’s not.” The conversation was clearly over. Ianto shrugged and left the room, leaving a mug of coffee on his boss’s desk.

A few seconds later, Jack pushed on past Ianto, heading in the direction of the cells. Maybe he was taking Ianto’s advice. That would be good. Ianto headed to the lift, back to the tourist office it was his job to man. He had pizza to order - and chocolate pudding.


	4. Offer of a room

“Hello? Pizza.” The door to the tourist office swung inwards, and a girl stepped in, carrying several boxes of pizza.

Ianto smiled at her and reached out to take them.

“Annie, isn’t it?”

He set the boxes on the counter and reached for the cash he’d already set aside. The pizza girl looked at him, puzzled.

“You remembered?”

“I clean up after them, you bring us our food. Invisibility is part of the job, doesn’t mean we can’t see each other.”

He smiled at her.

“I’m Ianto.”

Annie stammered a bit.

“Oh! Um, actually, well, I mean,, um... I’m already with someone…”

He should have realized. Wasn’t the only time that Jack noticed him when he wanted sexual gratification? Shit, no! He didn’t want to do that to anyone.

“Oh, no, no. I didn’t mean that. I just meant… just, as people. We forget sometimes, don’t we?”

He handed her the money for the pizza, then pulled a pound note out of his pocket and handed that to her as well.

“You’re right.” Annie smiled at him, though still slightly suspicious. “We are people, even when we’re working.” She pocketed the tip and turned away.

As she opened the door, she turned back.

“Until next time, Ianto.”

He smiled as the door closed behind her. For all he resented being ignored, until that afternoon he’d forgotten how NICE it could feel to be seen instead.

(-) (-) (-)

 

Ianto came into the Hub with the pizzas.

“God she’s gorgeous! Can I meet her?”

It was the new girl - something must have gone right when Jack went to talk to her, since she wasn’t in the cells anymore.

“You don’t want to meet us properly, but the dinosaur you do?”

Tosh was laughing at her, and Ianto saw that the dark-haired girl staring up into the heights of the Hub, the same amazed look she’d given him in the cells. He heard a cry and looked up himself - Myfanwy was circling the waterfall. 

“Look at her though!” He could hear the delight in her voice. “She’s stunning and real and alive in the 21st century!”

“Maybe later.” That was Jack. He looked over and saw Ianto as he came closer to the group. He nodded an acknowledgment, then turned back to Lucy.

“Lucy, this is everyone. Everyone, this is Lucy.”

Lucy finally tore her gaze from the Pterodactyl to look around at the team. “Hello” was muttered from several people before Jack continued.

“First we need to work out what we’re going to do with you.”

Ianto froze. She knew so much - what WOULD be the best thing to do? Surely Jack wouldn’t allow a stranger to run around Cardiff (or anywhere in the United Kingdom, for that matter) knowing who they all were. Of course he would Retcon her. And she must know it was coming - if Torchwood was a show on the telly in her world, sure she knew about…

It took a couple seconds for him to realize that she was talking - and not talking as someone who expected to forget. 

“...I suppose I’ll need somewhere to live, a job, a life… everything.”

Jack was nodding - had she convinced him to leave her her memories? He did lie sometimes though - was there anything he could do to help?

“I’ve got a spare room, you can have that.”

Ianto never knew what it was that made him speak up - though he almost managed to convince himself it was just because he didn’t want to lose the only ally he had yet encountered who might help him help get Lisa back.

“Really?” 

“Yeah. I, er, won’t charge you rent until things get settled down, but you’ll have to help with keeping it clean and tidy and the cooking.”

“I’m a decent cook.”

Ianto turned to Jack.

“Seems to me that’s the best option, at least until she sorts herself out and is able to stand on her own two feet.”

Without seeming to, Ianto held his breath - if Jack overruled him and insisted on Retconning the girl, or keeping her in the cells indefinitely… well, there wasn’t really anything he could do, but for the first time in a long time, he actually felt hope - maybe Lisa COULD be saved. 

Jack looked at Lucy thoughtfully, then nodded, slowly.

So. It was settled then. The spare room in his flat - full of odds and ends and random shoes - was about to have a resident. Oh gods, how much work would it take to get the room ready? And what was he getting himself into?


	5. Settling In

The door to the tourist office swung inwards, and Jack came through. Ianto raised an eyebrow - it wasn’t the first time the boss had gone out from the hub another way before stepping in - at the front door, so to speak - to speak with him, but he didn’t make a habit of it. 

“Took the scenic route, then, sir?”

Jack flashed his trademark smile, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. Which told Ianto everything he needed to know.

“You’re worried.”

Jack sighed deeply.

“Yeah.”

“You offered her a job. With us.”

“What do you think, Ianto, should I have?”

Ianto shrugged. He was quite relieved that Jack had made that offer, but he could hardly share his own reasons as justification.

“Why did you offer her your spare room, anyway?”

“Well sir, they say that you should keep your friends close.”

“And your enemies closer?”

“This situation is unprecedented, Sir. It seemed wisest to me.”

“Right. Well. I guess there’s always Retcon if it doesn’t work out.”

Jack was talking to himself now - Ianto saw no need to say anything. He turned and faced Ianto squarely.

“Tourist office closes in an hour and a half. When that’s done, take Lucy home and get her settled in. Find some clothes for her, I’ll give her some money for her own wardrobe - I don’t think Tosh’s would really suit her, and none of the rest of us are her size. I’ll get Tosh to pull out a clean laptop with no connection to our software so she can browse the net to find differences between her time and ours.”

Jack spit out orders rapid fire, The Captain once again - for the first time since the girl had woken on the Plass and known them all by name. Ianto nodded silently, and pushed the button that unlocked the door into the hub. Jack headed through.

(-) 0-0 (-)

“I hope you don’t mind - I haven’t been able to, er, clear out the spare room yet.” 

Ianto fumbled with the keys to the flat, trying to balance the bundles he was carrying without having to set them down on the grungy floor. The door opened, and he stepped aside to let Lucy go in first. 

Unfortunately, the bundles got in the way, and for a second Ianto and Lucy were wedged together in the doorframe. Ianto stepped back, Lucy twisted forward, then both were free.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Lucy set her bundled on the hall table. Ianto stepped in, deposited HIS bundles as well, and stepped through before her into the main room of the flat.

“Which room is it?”

Ianto reached over and opened a door. Lucy gasped. The room was done in soft colors, carefully arranged. Pictured lined the walls, family pictures - a beautiful family, a family that was clearly not Ianto’s. Although he was in several of the pictures - frozen in a happier time, an innocent joy he’d nearly forgotten. 

“Is...This room, was... it was supposed to be…” she trailed off.

“Lisa’s. Yes.” 

“Oh.” Lucy walked around the room, looking at each picture in turn. She paused a long time in front of a younger Lisa, and her younger sister Ellie - building a sandcastle together on the beach.

“This is her family.”

“Yes. Her parents… died… before we met. Her sister was taken into care. These pictures are all she has left.”

Lucy’s eyes glistened. Ianto had to resist the urge to wipe away his own. For obvious reasons, this was the first time he’d spoken of Lisa or her family since the Battle… since coming to Cardiff. He pushed away images of carnage and fire and blood, and forced himself to remember his first view of the skyline of his home city - after years in London, coming home had been…

He’d always imagined bringing Lisa home with him, forever. But not like this. She was the strong one, he’d never wanted…

He turned away, closed his eyes. Took a deep breath to steady himself.

She must have heard him. Lucy, that is. He heard her draw a ragged breath herself, as she tore her gaze away from the photo.

“Oh Ianto, I can’t take this.”

The girl’s voice was rough, worn with the strain of covering emotions no one else should ever know of. He knew that struggle too well - wasn’t this the first time he’d even allowed himself to stop and feel anything about Lisa? Around her, he had to keep it buried or he’d never have the strength to care for her - to keep her life support system operating. 

“You’ve got a sofa. I can, I can sleep there, we could get a suitcase or something to keep my things in. I don’t have to take this, this room, I, I shouldn’t take this from…” 

She bit her lip and stopped. 

“I mean, this - this is her room, not mine. These are her things. Mine don’t belong here.”

“No.” 

He surprised himself - he’d expected it to be hard, but he realized he knew what he had to do.

“No, your things do belong, wherever you belong. Her things belong where she is, not where I want her to be.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure. Tomorrow we can take her things to the Hub. I think perhaps you should... I think you need to meet her.”

“Ok.”

Lucy turned and left the room.

“Where are you going?”

She was folding a throw into a thick bundle as Ianto followed her into the living room.

“Do you have spare blankets anywhere?” She set the bundle at one end of the sofa and headed toward the entry table where her clothes bundles were. She pulled out a set of pyjamas and made a bee-line towards the bathroom.

“But, we said, I mean…”

“Just tonight. I’ll move into her room once she’s out. Just for tonight, I’d rather have the sofa, if that’s ok.”

She shut the bathroom door behind her - a second later Ianto heard the running of water in the shower.

“O-kay. If that’s what you want.”

He gathered the spare bedding from the entryway closet, and set about making the sofa into a reasonable facsimile of a bed. By the time he was finished, Lucy came out, clad in her jimjams, her long, damp hair already returned to its plait. 

“If you would like to turn in,” Ianto offered, “it’s ready for you.”

She slid under the covers, then looked back up at Ianto.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that, I was going to.”

“Well, I thought perhaps it might be a good idea to turn in early. If we’re going to gather Lisa’s things in the morning, it might be good to get an early start.”

Lucy snuggled more deeply under the blankets.

“That sounds…” her words were interrupted by an enormous yawn - “that sounds like a plan.”

“Until morning then.”

He turned and headed towards his own room.

“Good night, Ianto.”

He stopped. He’d forgotten what it was like, hearing those words again. He almost smiled.

“Good night.”

“See you in the morning.”

Ianto slid into his own bedroom, and shut the door behind him. He spoke softly, knowing the girl would never hear him.

“See you in the morning.”


	6. Meeting Lisa

It was early. It was always early when he came in to work. The others couldn’t function without their coffee, and to make it properly took time - so Ianto was always the first to arrive. He was never the only one there, Jack never seemed to leave - but he was always the first to arrive. 

This time he was even earlier. Lucy had helped him to gather Lisa’s things together, and they were going to bring them to her chamber. He hadn’t expected to let a near-stranger handle Lisa’s things, but Lucy was surprisingly respectful. Indeed, she was more careful with the pictures of Lisa and her family even than he himself would have been. 

“You don’t take the invisible lift when you come in?”

“Not often, no. That’s Jack’s toy. Besides, someone has to unlock the main entrance for the others.”

Ironic that he would say that, as he turned and locked the door of the tourist office behind them before pressing the button that opened the hidden doorway.

He caught her bemused smile and nearly blushed.

“Well, maybe not this early, we don’t want random pedestrians wandering in while we see to Lisa. I open the tourist office at eight. Or nine, if anyone’s left a particularly excessive mess around the Hub. Or whenever Jack wants someone to wait for important visitors.”

He paused, thinking about it.

“All right, the tourist office is actually rather infrequently staffed.”

Lucy grinned up at him, as he gestured toward the now-open doorway for her to go first.

“That’s what we always figured - all the fans, I mean. You were always around the Hub way too much for the tourist office to actually be much good to tourists. We figured Jack just sent you up if he had someone he actually wanted to let in, like Martha or -”

She stopped abruptly, then smiled sheepishly. 

“Sorry, spoilers.”

Ianto shook his head.

“I’m not sure how I feel about that. Bad enough worrying about keeping my secrets from Jack - but my life on a telly, every choice I make held up to the scrutiny of dozens of strangers?”

“Dozens? Ianto, don’t sell yourself short, it’s more like thousands.”

“I’m not sure that makes it better.” 

“Oh come on! Tons of people love Torchwood. And everyone who loves Torchwood thinks the world of you” 

“I’m not sure which world that would be”

The cog doorway opened up, and Ianto looked around to make sure Jack wasn’t actually present. It was unusual that he made any noise at all as he’d come in, and now he was part of a laughing, bantering duo. It felt strange, but nice.

“This way.” He led the way to the stairs that led to the basement. 

She followed him in silence until he reached the lower level, the hallway closest to Lisa’s chamber.

“I’ll go first. I’ll let her know you’re here, and I’ll let you know when you can come in. Will that be all right?”

“Yeah, sure. I mean, I don’t mind…”

She looked him in the eye. No one did that, no one bothered to notice him - not ever, and certainly not since he’d joined Torchwood Cardiff.

“Ianto, I’m so sorry. I really wish it had been different for you.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. He settled for saying nothing. 

He started down the final hall that led to Lisa’s hiding place.

“I’ll call for you in a minute.”

She probably had some sympathetic expression on her face. He could almost see it. He walked resolutely away, squaring his shoulders. He didn’t want compassion, he didn’t want pity. Did he?

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The door swung silently open - at first it had screeched and whined every time he opened it, but a daily oiling and careful working of the hinges reduced the sound almost entirely. He knew that it couldn’t be heard even a few hundred feet away, much less in the Hub above, but it had still worried him. So he had fixed it. If only he could fix Lisa as easily.

He never wanted to look - never wanted to see his vibrant, life-filled Lisa trapped and helpless, immobilized in a frame that was simultaneously keeping her alive, and filling her life with nothing but agony. Cybercomponents were never meant to interface with human flesh, and the stench was nearly unbearable - in so many ways, a partial conversion was worse than if they’d just killed her and been done with it.

“Lisa?” 

She turned, her eyes fluttering open to look at him.

“How do you feel?”

She smiled - the corners of her eyes crinkling as they always had when he’d walked into the room. That smile, the one she’d given to him alone. It nearly broke his heart.

“Better, now that you’re here.”

She was lying. Of course she was lying, she always lied to make him feel better. He accepted the fiction - she didn’t need to worry about him, on top of everything else.

“Is there anything I can do?”

She gasped, just once.

“The pain. Can you…”

As quickly as he could, but carefully - so carefully, not to knock her frame about - he reached behind her head and adjusted the flow of the pain medication. He really needed to figure out how to put it in her own reach, so she could give herself relief for those times he couldn’t be there. But she never let him, said she didn’t think she could trust herself with that control.

As the medication began to flow more freely, she heaved a deep sigh of relief. Ianto reached and took her hand. He wanted to say something, he wanted to do something - anything but stand here, so awkward, so uncomfortable. Lisa - his Lisa - she never wanted anyone to make a fuss. 

He had no idea how long he was stood there. He tasted salt, sliding into the corner of his mouth. With his free hand, he pushed the water away from his cheek, trying to rub it out completely.

He took a deep breath. There wasn’t much time, and Lucy was waiting.

“Um, I’ve brought someone. Here. Someone who can… might… be able to help.”

Lisa raised her eyes to him again. Hope? Was that hope in her eyes?

“A doctor? A cybernetics expert?”

“No.”

He hated so much to dash that hope, but…

“No, a...a friend. She knows. She wants to help.”

“What good will that do? What does she know of THIS?”

She was angry, and he knew why. Oh god, he should have been more careful how he said it. To raise the wrong hopes and then to dash them? What could he even say to…

“She’s...lost her world. We… Torchwood, we’re all she has left. And in her world, we’re just a show on the telly. It’s not, quite, the same… but, I think… I think she can understand, in a way perhaps that I can’t.”

Oh Lisa, please understand! I can’t change you back, I don’t know how - but maybe Lucy can… maybe she can help you REMEMBER what it is to be human.

She broke into his thoughts, bitter and angry.

“I don’t want “understanding”, Ianto! I want it fixed! I need…”

She stopped as Ianto looked at her, startled. She lowered her eyes, speaking towards the floor.

“I just want this to be done with.”

“Oh Lisa!”

There were no words. None. She was so vulnerable, and it tore his heart to pieces. He reached out, fingers resting on her jaw. With his thumb, he rubbed away the single tear that slipped down her cheek.

Footsteps echoed down the hall. Ianto startled up. Even though he’d just been talking about her, he’d nearly forgotten that Lucy was waiting just outside.

“Oh! Oh. Right. Um. Come on in.”

Lucy came in, carrying the bundle of Lisa’s things. She handed them to Ianto, then faced Lisa.

“Oh God.”

She gently touched Ianto on the arm. 

“Oh God, it’s so much worse when it’s not on a screen.”

“I can hear you.”

Lisa didn’t seem particularly interested in hitting it off with Lucy. 

“I’m sorry. I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Lisa, this is, er, this is Lucy. Shes… um.”

He started to trail off, really not knowing what to say, but then forced “the butler” to give him some strength.

“Lucy, this is Lisa.”

Lisa fixed Lucy with a fierce glare.

“Who are you, what do you know about me, and why?”

This was not going as well as he’d hoped.

“I’m Lucy. I came here through the rift. I know you’re Ianto’s girlfriend and you survived the Battle of Canary Wharf.”

“Barely”

“What?”

“Barely. I barely survived the Battle of Canary Wharf. If you call this surviving.”

Lucy took a deep breath. 

“Lisa, I know this sucks. I know this sucks so much, and nothing I’ve lost could ever begin to compare. But I know, Lisa I know that Ianto cares so much, I know that he’ll do anything, that he’s risking everything because he wants you back. He wants you whole again. And I don’t know how much I can help, but I’m gonna do the best I can. Because you two deserve a chance for a second life together.”

“And what can you do? Are you a doctor? Are you an expert in cybernetics? Do you know ANYTHING about this conversion chamber that I taught - that I taught my boyfriend how to modify so it could keep me alive?”

“No, I don’t. I…”

“Then what good are you?”

Lucy stepped back - a lot more calm than Ianto would have been. Had she had to face accusations like these before? There was a sorrow in her eyes, but it looked more to be sorrow for Lisa, and not as if her harsh words had wounded her directly.

“We brought your things. Your - the pictures of you with your family. We, we brought them.”

She looked to Ianto, who lifted the bundle up where Lisa could see it.

Lisa looked at him now, coldly.

“So, you’re kicking me out. I haven’t even set foot in our flat and you’re kicking me out.”

“No, no Lisa, it’s not like that at all.”

“Is SHE moving in with you?”

“Lisa, no! I mean, um…”

She glared at Lucy

“You’re moving in with my boyfriend.”

Lucy reached and pulled out one of the pictures from the flat - one of Lisa and Ianto, at a pub, laughing together

“It’s not like that, and it never will be. I just need a place to stay. But you’re the one he loves. You know he’ll do anything for you.”

“And you know this why?”

Ianto had to step in. He had to. But what could he say? This wasn’t at all what he’d hoped for - what could he say?

“Lisa! You know I want you, oh God, I want you home!”

Tears ran freely down his face, tears he didn’t even try to wipe away.

“You know I want you home, but I’ve been so selfish! Lisa, I don’t need to remember to fight for you. I don’t need your family, your pictures, I have you. Your things - you need them here, you need them here so you can remember what you have to fight for, so you remember who you are, who you want to be again. This is so hard, I shouldn’t ask you to fight alone, with no reminders of your family, of your life.”

“My family is dead.”

Lucy pulled out the picture of Lisa and Ellie, building a sandcastle on the beach. She brought it close, held it out to Lisa.

“You can hold on for Ellie.”

Lisa reached out and took the framed picture. She held it up, looked at it. Looked back at Lucy.

Suddenly, she flung the picture away. The glass in the frame shattered, and with a cry, Lucy rushed over and began to gather the pieces together.

“I don’t want to remember. Don’t. Make. Me. Remember.”

Oh gods, this was bad. This was bad. All he’d wanted to do was help, and now…

Lisa hadn’t lost herself in anger in months. At first, she’d been in too much physical pain, but then of course the helplessness had gotten to her. And it had torn him apart, but she’d eventually gained some mastery over it. At least he’d thought so. But now that control was in shreds. 

And Lucy - Lucy looked as devastated as if she’d just watched her closest friend kick a puppy across the room. 

“Enough!” He cried out, and silence fell. Oh god, now what?

“Lucy, can you…”

She nodded, and left - taking the photo in its ruined frame.

“Lisa, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, I, I don’t know-”

“It’s not your fault.”

What? It’s not… but how… of course it is, it has to be

“Just...just come back later.” 

Lisa’s eyes closed, but she reached a hand out, taking his in hers. She squeezed once, gently, before clinging tightly.

“I can’t… I’m sorry Ianto. It’s just too much. Right now, it’s just too much. I need some time.”

He turns. Lets go of her hand. Begins to walk away.

“Ianto?”

Something in her voice, a light note. Can it be ok again?

“I love you.”

His eyes close, almost on their own. The slightest smile - has she forgiven him?

“You’re supposed to say “I know.””

The old joke, the one they used to pass back and forth every night before going to sleep - one night it was his turn to say the words, the next she’d do it instead. 

He smiled, sadly.

“I know.”


	7. Shooting Range

“Lucy, can you…” 

He had asked her to leave - not to hurt her, but to give her the freedom to get away from the hurt, from the accusations, from the verbal attacks he’d never expected to come from his Lisa. 

She’d left, running away without pause, fleeing - and only after she was gone did he realize she probably didn’t know where she was even going. This was her first day on the job - her first time ever in a part of the Hub that even Jack never visited. He had to find her, before someone else missed her and started looking, and maybe found him and Lisa instead.

A few quick words, taking leave… He felt sickened, horrified that he had thought bringing Lucy into the situation could ever have been a good idea. Of course Lisa would lash out - she’s in a world of constant pain, for gods’ sakes. Of course she’d be upset that someone was “replacing her,” even though there was no other choice right now. Lucy had nowhere to go, and Ianto was paying for a room that wasn’t being used - was hoarding Lisa’s things instead of giving them to her, to help her fight. 

As soon as the door was bolted again, Ianto headed in the direction the footsteps had first disappeared - but all too soon he realized he had no idea which direction she would have gone from there. Of course she could have retraced their steps, gone back up to the main Hub, but he didn’t think she had.

He was stood at a junction, wondering which way he should take, when he heard the gunshot. The report reverberated up and down the tunnels, echoing off the tile and the stone. Ianto froze, his chest gripped by what felt like a fist of fear. 

“Lucy?” 

Whether it was the echo of the shot, or something else, he barely even heard himself breathe the name. His new flatmate, the one person who knew his secret - and instead of condemning him, offered her help - he’d told Lisa she was a friend, and then Lisa had attacked her, lashing out with all her pain as if the stranger were the cause. If anything had happened to her…

He was torn, and ashamed as he hesitated. He remembered the shock of finding Lisa - even though Lucy was a near stranger, he still dreaded what he might find. And yet, this was his responsibility - he had to be sure, no matter how he dreaded it.

He forced himself to move, to turn towards the sound, instead of running away to hide. And he ran. And as he ran, another shot rang out. And another, and another. He turned the final corner, gasping for breath, and forced himself to look.

Oh thank all the gods there ever were. She’d found the shooting range. Well obviously she’d found the shooting range - he should have realized, but he’d never come from this direction, he hadn’t quite put the tunnels he’d rushed through together with the map in his head, though he always did - but that was all. She’d been the one firing, but at targets. At targets. He bent over, forcing himself to catch his breath. She’d found the shooting range, and was firing the weapons at targets.

Although it must be her first time - she’d only managed to nick the very edge of one target, the rest were untouched. She set down the gun she’d been using, and picked up another. Ianto quickly turned and grabbed a headset - the last time he’d forgotten hearing protection down here, it had been days before the ringing stopped.

He turned just in time to see her pull the trigger. 

“Oh shit. Oh SHIT!”

Apparently the microphone was on. And equally apparently, she hadn’t been prepared for the recoil. Her free hand raised quickly to her face, as she quickly set the gun back on the table - still pointed, he noticed, towards the backstop instead of in some other, more dangerous direction. 

“Lucy, are you ok?”

Was his mic on? He didn’t know, but he did turn at his words. She lowered her hands. She met his eyes, then looked down - blood poured from her nose. 

“Oh my god.” She laughed, shook her hand. Droplets splattered all over Ianto.

“Oh shit! Sorry!”

She reached as if to wipe it away, but stopped before she could get more blood on his suit.

“Oh god, I’m sorry!”

“Don’t mention it, I have an excellent dry cleaner”

She grinned.

“I guess you’d have to, working around here.”

She reached gingerly for her nose again.

“FUCK that hurts!”

“I take it you’re not used to the recoil?”

Ianto pulled a chair out and guided Lucy to sit down. She leaned forward and pinched her nostrils shut. Clearly this wasn’t her first nosebleed.

“The other one wasn’t so bad”

Ianto carefully removed her hearing protection.

“Not all guns are alike.”

“No, they’re not.”

They hadn’t heard Jack come in.

“Ianto, since when are you cleared to train anyone on the shooting range?”

“I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”

“Damn right it won’t!”

Jack knelt next to Lucy. He took her hand, gently pulling it away to take a look at the damage. At least the bleeding was stopped.

“It’s not Ianto’s fault, Jack. I just got cocky.”

“You got cocky?”

“Yeah. The first one was easy - well, I mean I couldn’t hit the target, but, you know - so, I just kept going, and…”

She gestured the blood puddled on the floor, sprayed down the front of her hoodie and jeans.

Jack sighed and shook his head, half rolling his eyes at her nonchalance.

“Come on, new girl, let’s get you up to the autopsy room. I want to make sure that nose isn’t broken, and Owen’s not going to be in for another hour at least.”

Lucy stood, but before heading out the door she took one more look down the shooting range.

“I can come here again, can’t I, Jack?”

Though there was definitely beginnings of more than one bruise, Lucy’s eyes sparkled. 

“Please?”

Jack sighed.

“All right. After lunch, you’ll come down here with me, and I’ll show you how to fire these things PROPERLY. Got it?”

She grinned.

“Thanks!”

Jack shook his head.

“Oh, and Ianto?”

“Yes sir?

“You might want to find some time today to visit the dry cleaners”

“Of course, sir.”


	8. Can Lucy Help?

Disclaimer: as usual, I own nothing. Thanks to RTD and the BBC for creating Torchwood and not suing fanfic writers, and thanks to happy-rea for permission to use Lucy and the Lucyverse.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Ianto headed down to the basement. Alone, as he always was. 

It had been weeks since that disastrous meeting - when he’d tried to introduce Lucy to Lisa, and found out that Lisa was... What? Jealous? Or maybe not even that, maybe just envious. Lucy was free, Lucy was whole, Lucy was not in pain - everything that Lisa wanted and couldn’t have, Lucy did. Was that it? She was obviously bitter anyway - more bitter than she had let him see. He should have realized - how much of his own anguish had he hidden from her? But when someone else came in - why wouldn’t she lash out at Lucy?

He almost wished he’d turned down the girl’s offer of support - but the truth was, he really did need it. He needed the help, he needed to not carry this burden by himself anymore. Not that Lisa was a burden - of course not. He loved her so much, it would have been so much worse if he’d lost her. But having to keep it all a secret from EVERYONE, and not just to keep it a secret, but to hide that secret under their noses, in the very heart of Torchwood itself? Surely she could understand, if only he told her in the right way. He couldn’t keep doing this alone, he would break. And if Ianto broke, who would Lisa have?

He made his way down the stairs, through the tunnels. Coffee was done, rubbish taken out, Owen was happily busy carrying out gruesome and messy experiments in the autopsy bay, at least for the next couple hours, so there was no point in scrubbing it down now. Lunch was still an hour away - hopefully if anyone actually cared to wonder where he was (and they wouldn’t) they would assume he was deep in the archives, trying to sort out some mess or other. 

He heard a gunshot, and this time he smiled. Tosh must have finally released Lucy from her “basic” technology training session. Even with her disastrous first shooting session - her nose had, in fact, been broken - it seemed Lucy prefered the gun range to trying to hack into… well, anything, really. It was a rare day now that the sounds of muffled gunfire didn’t echo through the lower tunnels, at least for ten minutes or so. 

Whatever else Jack had taught Lucy about using the shooting range, he’d shown her the sliding soundproof door that first afternoon. Not that closing it silenced it completely, but at least no one would go deaf from being in the wrong tunnel at the wrong time.

\------

He pushed the door to Lisa’s room open again. She lay in the bed, eyes closed. She almost looked peaceful this morning.

Was she improving? He couldn’t tell. It did look like maybe the pain wasn’t bothering her as much as he’d come in the last few weeks - though she was more restless than before, wanting to be up and about. That was a good thing, right? Part of him wished he could ask Owen - irritating as the team doctor was, he did seem to know what he was doing as a doctor. 

He hoped at least that maybe she’d been able to rest this time. He was nearly by her side before she turned her head and smiled up at him.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better, now that you’re here.”

He knew it was always a lie - but maybe this time it wasn’t? Maybe this time she really was feeling better?

“Is there anything you need?”

Her response was bitter.

“Have you found anyone else yet?”

What? Had he found anyone? How could she think that of him?

“Of course not! Lisa, there’s never been anyone but you!”

He gripped her hand tightly with both of his, willing her to believe him. 

“Please Lisa, believe me - I promise you’re the only person I’ve ever loved!”

She smiled up at him, HIS smile.

“I know. And you always keep your promises.”

She reached and grabbed for the side of the restraints, pushing down as if she could get up. When she couldn’t move herself, she collapsed back with a grimace.

“But Ianto, what I MEANT was, have you found anyone else who can help me get out of this bed?”

Oh god! Of course that’s what she’d meant. Why had he ever thought she meant something else? Of course! Now he’d gone and made an idiot of himself - what if she thought he was protesting too much? Relief flooded over him - he’d answered the wrong question. Now he just had to answer… oh. Except…

“I haven’t, Lisa. I… I don’t know where else to turn.”

“It’s been a month and half since the American’s turned you down. You haven’t found anyone else to ask in all that time?”

Shit. It had been so busy, and he’d gotten behind - now she was disappointed in him. He hated so much to hurt her - he should have been looking harder, he should have…

“I’m sorry, Lisa, I don’t--”

“What about your ‘friend’?”

Lucy? Of course he’d been a little busier than usual helping her settle in - but that wasn’t the only reason, he’d just run out of ideas.

“Your friend”

She looked at him pointedly. Had he said something? He wasn’t even sure.

“The one who ‘knows.’ The one who ‘wants to help’ - the one who moved in with you, the one who’s replacing me!”

“Lisa, it’s not like that! I swear, it’s not!”

“Fine. Whatever.”

She didn’t believe him. Shit. What could he do to…

“What I mean is, since you’ve run out of ideas, can she help me find someone?”

His lowered his head to her hand - the hand he still clung to with both of his.

There was a soft tap tap behind him. 

It was Lucy. She stood in the open doorway, lowering her hand after she’d just rapped on it - He hadn’t even heard her come up. 

Lisa rolled her eyes. Of course she was facing the door - she’d probably seen Lucy coming, was that why she’d lashed out? 

Lisa turned her eyes to the door.

“Can you?”

Her voice hard, demanding.

“Can I help you? I don’t know. I… I’ll try.”

“Why are you here anyway? It didn’t go very well last time you came, I thought you’d run away.”

Lucy hesitated. 

“Well?”

“I’ve… I’ve found your sister.”

Lisa froze, her hand gripped Ianto’s so hard he nearly cried out.

“How?”

“I got Tosh to let me practice my hacking on the NSPCC servers. Pretended I was just trying to figure out how to do it, but…”

“Where is she?”

“She’s with a family in Reading. She’s… it looks like she’s happy. But maybe you could…”

“And you think they’ll let something like THIS near her? I’m not even supposed to still be alive! That’s why I’ve got to stay hidden in a basement, like some monstrous THING”

Lucy looked down.

“I’m so sorry. I just…”

“No, it’s ok. You ‘care.’ bleeding heart and all that. I used to be like that.”

Lisa laughed bitterly.

“But you shouldn’t be wasting your time trying to find someone who will never want me anyway. If you want to help, I’d rather you try to find a way to get me out of here. Then maybe I can spare something for my baby sister.”

Lucy took a deep breath. Suddenly she stopped and turned to Ianto.

“Oh, shoot, I almost forgot! Somehow Owen ran into the coffee table, managed to spill all the coffee you’ve made and now they’re looking for you. You probably should get up there before before someone starts checking down here.”

Ianto gritted his teeth.

“Owen!” 

It felt almost like a curse. He headed to the door, expecting Lucy to be right behind him. Instead, she turned back to Lisa.

“Ok, so finding Ellie was too soon. I get that now. Sorry. So, um, tell me how I can help, and I’ll do my best.”

“What?”

He didn’t mean to say anything, but it came out anyway.

“Ianto, go. I’ve got this.”

He looked to Lisa.

Lisa rolled her eyes, but smiled at him.

“I’m not going to bite. Get out of here.” 

Then Lisa turned to Lucy, effectively shutting him out. 

As he headed down the hallway, she continued.

“Ok, what DO you know about the conversion process?”

He breathed easier. Maybe, with Lucy’s help, this might work after all. 

Then he remembered the coffee.

If the coffee machine was actually broken, Owen was going to be drinking decaf for the next year.


	9. Maltesers and Murder

Ianto waited outside his flat while Lucy ran back in to grab something. It had become a habit to walk to the Hub together at least once a week instead of taking the car - neither of them even remembered who had suggested it, but with the flat so close, it really did make a bit of sense.

Lucy pulled the door to and bounced over to Ianto. Malteasers. Of course, that’s what she’d gone back for. Chocolate. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she grinned.

“I’m gonna do it today!” she announced with a grin, as she popped one of the malt balls into her mouth. 

He sighed and shook his head. Sometimes he regretted the part of the morning routine where he fixed her a mug of coffee first thing in the morning, but if he didn’t, he’d practically have to carry her into work every morning - and neither of them wanted that. 

She looked at him expectantly. Some mornings he would really prefer to just let it go, but…

He sighed.

“All right. What is it that you are ‘gonna do’?”

“I’m gonna get Jack to tell me what I need to do to get to be weapons specialist! Remember, you promised to say something to him too, right, about how much help it’ll be, to have someone know everything about that stuff in the archives?”

“Yes. I remember. Is it really necessary to be so hyper about it? This early?”

“Oh, come on Yan! Promise you’ll talk to him this morning, it’ll mean I get even more play time in the shooting range. Who wouldn’t get excited about that!”

“That depends. Other than you? Is Jack supervising? And does the person getting play time appreciate his “hands on” approach?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Ok, fine. Maybe the rest of them don’t like my toys.”

Toys. Only Lucy would think that the heavy artillery hiding out in the basement of the Hub was a ‘toy’. Still, at least she did play with them safely. Which was probably more than could be said for her box of sweets.

He reached over and lifted it from her hands.

“You should probably wait to talk to Jack until this bout of hysterics has passed.”

She grabbed for the box, but he held it up over his head, just out of her reach.

“Yan! I need my chocolate! Give it back!”

“I don’t think you do, Lucy.” 

He caught one of the sweets that rolled out of the box with his free hand, and popped it into his mouth.

“Ianto! Give! People are staring.”

“At six in the morning? I don’t see anyone.”

She kept jumping up, slapping at his wrists while he tried not to laugh. Laughter meant distraction, and there was no doubt that Lucy could take advantage of any moment of weakness - especially when she was already hyper.

“Oh! Prosthetics!”

“What?”

“Something you can look up. For Lisa.”

“Lucy, can you try to pull those thoughts together into something resembling coherence?”

He lowered his hands in confusion. Lucy took one last jump, and snatched the malteasers from his hands.

“Haha!!”

“Ok, you win. You have your sweet. Now - what do you mean, prosthetics?”

“I just mean, someone who specializes in advanced robotic prosthetic limbs might have the best experience to figure out how to help her. There’s bunch of different companies that work on developing stuff that interfaces directly with the human nervous system.”

She stopped and fished into her bag and pulled out a rumpled half-sheet of paper and thrust it at him.

He took it with a raised eyebrow

“And what is this?”

“It’s a list. For you to check out. You know I can’t do advanced hacking without the cheat sheet.”

He checked to make sure he could actually decipher her scrawl (the legibility depended on quite a few factors) before pocketing the paper. 

“Thank you. I’ll take a look when I have a chance.”

“And you’ll talk to Jack for me today?”

She popped another of the malted balls into her mouth and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.

Ianto sighed.

“All right. I’ll do my best.”

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

He did try, but the day refused to cooperate with him. Every time he tried to talk with Jack, something happened. The Rift spit out some space junk (at least they hoped it was just space junk) in Radyr. A weevil decided to attack someone’s dog in Victoria Park. Then there was a Hoix at the Cardiff Golf Club. 

While the whole team spent the day running around (except Lucy, who was trying to catch up on the rest of paperwork she’d inherited as the “new girl” - a title he knew she really wanted to lose, hence his promise to help her move up to weapon’s specialist… if Jack would ever have a minute for him to help make her case), and Ianto stayed at the Hub coordinating, there was no time for a quiet discussion of how valuable it would be to actually have someone who could have a pretty good idea if the thing some alien that came through the Rift had pointed at them was a weapon, or a salt-shaker, and if it was a weapon, what it could do.

Or something - he still hadn’t quite decided what the best arguments that would convince Jack to give Lucy a shot would actually be. But he did promise, and Ianto Jones always keeps his promises.

It was nearer to suppertime than lunch when he finally had a moment. Jack was in his office, the rest of the team working on… whatever it was they worked on - they didn’t really feel the need to keep him informed, he was just the tea-boy, and there had actually been time to brew a fresh pot of his best coffee.

He saved Jack’s coffee for last, and let himself into Jack’s office - where Jack was on the phone.

“Could I have a brief word, sir?”

Jack met his eyes, nodded, but held up a finger to say “I’ll be just a minute.”

“Ok, so hold on, let me get this straight. You’re saying that UNIT doesn’t have anyone who knows how to put someone off without sending them to pester someone else?”

Jack picked up his coffee and took a long, deep drink. He looked gratefully at Ianto.

“You couldn’t have just told him we incinerated all the remains? Because that is exactly what we did, you couldn’t tell him that?”

He rolled his eyes and waved one hand in the air, in a “yadda, yadda, yadda” gesture. 

Ianto tried not to smirk. Jack hated dealing with UNIT, but as head of the only real remaining branch of Torchwood, it was a big part of his job, and he couldn’t just blow them off as he obviously would prefer to do.

“All right, fine. When he calls, I’ll talk to him. Thanks for the head’s up. I’ve got to go. Yeah, you too. Talk to you later. Goodbye.”

Jack hung up the phone, braced his arm on the desk and rested his head in his hand, then he sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he looked up at Ianto.

“Tell me something, Ianto.”

“Sir?”

“Why is it that UNIT, who actually exist publically and work with the government and the public, who’s whole purpose is to be the FACE of alien affairs in Britain… why can’t they brush off their own conspiracy theorists and alien opportunists without fobbing them off on us? I mean, we are SUPPOSED to be so secret that Harriet Jones was the first Prime Minister to even know about us. And she didn’t even know about us, just about London.”

“I… really couldn’t tell you, Sir.”

“Well, anyway - So, Ianto, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Well, sir” he began. 

Only to be interrupted. Again. 

Suzie, calling from her workstation.

“The police have found another body!”

Jack was on his feet and heading for the door of his office, before Ianto had even realized what exactly was being said. 

“Well, as I was going to say…” he muttered under his breath, as Jack strode out into the common area. 

“Ok Team, let’s go!”

Ianto followed him out of his office, handing Jack the mug he had left on the desk. Jack threw back the last of the coffee, and looked over to where Lucy had sat all day, doggedly working her way through files and forms and miscellaneous other papers.

“Lucy, you finish that paperwork?”

“Yeah.” 

She grabbed the jacket off the back of her chair. Ianto tried to catch her eye, to let her know he still hadn’t had the chance to soften Jack up on her ideas, but her eyes were already on the door - obviously thrilled to maybe finally be allowed out in the field with the rest of the team. 

“Good, you can come with us.”

He was glad she was excited - and it was obvious she was going try again to take this opportunity to make her case for the position she wanted. He wished he could have smoothed the way a little, but he wished her well. Hopefully it would go well even without his help.

Jack turned to Ianto.

“We’ll be back in an hour or so, can you get the stuff I need for my UNIT call ready? And make sure the police know we’re on the way, I don’t want to have to explain things again.”

“No problem, sir. UNIT files and coffee will be waiting for you when you get back. I’ll call the police as soon as you leave.”

“You’re brilliant”

If only you knew, Jack. If only you gave a flying fuck about me besides coffee and paperwork.

“Just doing my job, sir.”

They were gone, without another word.

As Ianto headed to the phones, he couldn’t help but smirk. Jack had just gotten off the phone with UNIT, and clearly still had another call to go. It was nice when someone besides Ianto had to hate the part of the job they were dealing with. He rang the number for police headquarters.

“Yes, this is Torchwood. We know you’ve had another murder. You’re going to need to pull your men back from the crime scene, we need access. Yes, thank you.”

Ianto hung up the phone, and got to work pulling the files Jack needed. And maybe a few extra that he didn’t need. It wouldn’t do to have this call be less thorough than UNIT deserved, now would it?


	10. Everything Begins to Change

It was actually less than an hour before the team came back to the Hub - soaking wet and freezing, if the downpour outside was anything to go by. It wasn’t really Jack’s fault that nothing had gone right for him today (though he had managed to steal a few more minutes down with Lisa while they were all playing CSI:Cardiff), and there was no point in giving anyone else (*cough*Owen*cough*) any more reason to whine and complain. 

So when the “little bell” he’d set up in the tourist office sent an alert downstairs that someone was coming through, he grabbed a stack of towels and tucked them under his arm, and poured fresh mugs of coffee for everyone. When he picked up the tray, he grabbed the file full of papers for Jack (perhaps just a TAD fatter than it really had needed to be) and tucked it under his arm as well. He headed to the cage surrounding the cog door, and waited.

Lucy came through the door first, bounding up to him to grab a towel and throw it over her head, then taking the steaming mug of hot coffee he’d made just how she loved it. She grinned up at him as she started to towel her hair with one hand and used the other to hold her mug (her favorite - having individualized mugs did make it a bit easier) close so she could inhale the aroma.

“Thanks, Ianto. It’s cold and wet outside.”

He glanced at the puddles forming on the floor at everyone’s feet, then smirked.

“Is it? I hadn’t noticed.”

Everyone else was right behind Lucy, grabbing at towels and mugs in a free-for-all, as Ianto looked to Jack.

“How did it go?”

The tray empty and the towels distributed, he pulled out the files and handed them over.

Jack glanced over them and nodded appreciatively.

“Lucy’s the resident ghost whisperer now, but he didn’t know anything about his death.” 

He tucked the folders under his arm and started to head back to his office before pausing and turning back.

“Oh, and a WPC watched us, we’ll have to keep an eye on her.”

A WPC. Delightful. 

A glance at Lucy spoke volumes.

“What’s her name?”

“No idea.” 

Jack grinned and shrugged.

“Ok, you guys can all leave in a hour.”

With Lucy grinning at him over her mug, Ianto couldn’t quite resist.

“So I’m looking for a curious WPC. Well, that narrows the field down - and judging by Lucy’s face, she knows.”

Jack looked from Lucy to Ianto and shrugged as he started towards his office.

“If you can’t find her tonight, Lucy can tell you her name tomorrow morning,” he called back over his shoulder

Ianto raised an eyebrow. Lucy held in a giggle.

“Thanks for the challenge.”

Jack was already in his office. Ianto rolled his eyes at Lucy, and headed through the cog door to the lift. He worked better without interruption, and there would be no one in the tourist office at this time of night.

(*)(#)($)(#)(*)

It took rather longer than an hour. Tosh would probably have found the woman in half the time, but she’d been at the crime scene in the first place, which was an unfair advantage.. OK yes, she was also more skilled with the technological side of Torchwood than anyone else. But, after reviewing the CCTV footage of the crime scene, followed up with footage in the car park the WPC had used as a lookout point (WHY had Jack called up to her? Besides that it was Jack, of course, but one would almost wonder if he really wanted Torchwood to remain secret at all - though it did make it easier for him to pinpoint where to look after he’d exhausted the crime scene footage), then checking the work rota of the department to see who had been on shift that evening, it was a simple matter of hacking into the personnel files of those on duty, and seeing who’s photo matched the woman in the car park. 

Of course by then Owen had walked out (on the hour - never let it be said the man didn’t strive for “an appropriate work-life balance” even if that ‘life’ consisted mainly of getting pissed and going out on the pull), Tosh and Suzie headed past him a few minutes later… even Jack had come by - so much for working without interruption - but finally he’d found what he needed. 

As he shut the computer down, Jack popped his head into the office again.

“Finished?”

“For now, yes.”

“Ok, I’ll go down and drag Lucy away from her guns.”

“I did want to speak with you about that.”

“About Lucy’s guns?”

“We do need a weapon’s specialist.”

“And you think it should be Lucy?”

“Don’t you?”

Jack shrugged.

“All right. I’ll tell her what I want to see, and that if she can reach those goals, she can have the job. Sound good?”

“Yes, I think that does “sound good.” Thank you, Sir.”

Jack grinned.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you fancied our newest team member.”

“We’re friends, Sir.”

Jack punched Ianto lightly in the shoulder.

“Keep on telling yourself that, Kid, maybe it’ll come true.”

He turned on his heel and headed through the secret passage.

Sometimes Ianto wanted to deck the man.

($)($)(^)($)($)

“P.C. Gwen Cooper.”

Ianto locked the tourism office door behind them. Lucy was positively brimming with excitement over whatever Jack had told her about the weapons job, but perversely Ianto wanted to get in the first word.

“I could have told you that.”

“I’m sure you could have. Because you watched it on the telly in your world. I found out the old fashioned way - digging it up. Which one do you think is more impressive.”

She grinned.

“Of course, make this all about you! You’re as impressive as Jack thinks he is - happy?”

“Sarcasm? Or is this harassment?”

She just laughed and danced out of his reach as she pulled out yet another box of Maltesers - where she’d been keeping them, he didn’t want to know.

He rolled his eyes. She grinned, opened the box and popped yet another chocolate in, then crunched it in Ianto’s face.

“You seem happy. I take it whatever Jack wanted to talk with you about went well?”

“Yep!”

She wanted to tell him, that was obvious, but wanted him to ask. Pretending he didn’t know that, he waited. 

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“About what you know about P.C. Gwen Cooper? You wouldn’t tell me.”

She sighed and shook her head.

“No, I wouldn’t. I can’t - I don’t know what’s a fixed point and what’s in flux, so it’s safer to just assume it’s all fixed and do what I can to not change any of it.”

“What about Lisa?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re helping me help her. Does that mean you know she’s going to come out of this? Or don’t you know what happens?”

Lucy was silent for a moment. She wasn’t going to answer. Ianto decided to take the pressure off.

She had stopped dancing around out of his reach, and was walking quietly beside him. He reached one arm around her back - and stole the box of Maltesers right out of her hand.

This time he was the one dancing out of her reach, holding the sweets where she couldn’t get to them.

“Ianto!” she shrieked (he was having a very difficult time holding onto a straight face - but he did manage it. Barely)

“Give me my chocolate!!!”

“Tell me what Jack said, and I’ll think about it.”

“Aaargh!”

It was becoming more difficult by the second not to crack a smile.

“You are a twat.”

“I know you want to tell me, I’m just giving you an excuse.”

“All right, fine.” She grinned. “Eighty percent accuracy with all standard weapons at three different distances, and I start working on the database with you.”

“That sounds quite doable.”

“I’ll have it in three months!”

With great ceremony, he offered her back her Maltesers - the formality shattered as she snatched them from his hand and turned, shielding them from him with her body.

“MY PRECIOUS!”

He really really tried not to. He did. They called it “corpsing” in the theatre - when an actor could not stay in character (particularly one playing a corpse) because the laughter would not keep away. 

It started with a snort. It didn’t stop there, though. He didn’t intend to double over, breathless. He certainly didn’t plan to collapse against a wall because he simply couldn’t keep it in any longer. And though she was still shielding her precious candy and muttering something about his ‘tricksy hands,’ Lucy was breaking too. And then they were both collapsed against each other, holding each other up. He could feel the box of chocolates in her hands, but weak with laughter, he couldn’t have taken them away from her even if they’d been made of gold. He hadn’t enjoyed himself this much since that camping trip with Lisa.

With Lisa. He stopped. Pushed himself upright. This was… was Lisa right to be jealous? No. He’d never do that to her. He took a deep breath. He loved Lisa. This wasn’t right. 

But he shouldn’t be shutting out his friend either. Another deep breath. 

“So” the ‘butler’ mask fell back into place. “Does this mean you’ve chosen tonight’s dvd?”

Lucy took hold of the railing and pulled herself to her feet. She leaned over and caught her breath. She tucked the box up against her chest, clearly still not quite trusting Ianto not to take it again.

“MY precious!”

“You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

She stood up, composed at last.

“It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow. Maybe we should take the shorter option.”

Ianto raised an eyebrow.

“As you wish.”


	11. Enter Gwen

Disclaimer - as usual, I own nothing Torchwood related, nor do I own Lucy (creation of happy-rea). Thanks to those who do for letting me play with them. I’ll have them back by tea, promise.

The next day was rather interesting. Though Ianto had been able to find the name of the curious WPC while Lucy was playing with her guns before they went home the night before, he’d not had time to find much else. Since Jack had said “find everything you can,” as soon as he’d finished with the early morning cleaning chores, he did nothing (apart from the mandatory coffee duties) the remainder of the day but search out everything he could to find out who this person was that had sparked Jack’s interest.

Obviously she was a beat cop. Had worked with Cardiff Heddlu for the last three years, recently partnered with PC Andy Davidson. PC Davidson seemed reasonably competent, though there was nothing particularly exceptional about him. But then there wasn’t anything exceptional about PC Gwen Cooper either. She had an average record - one or two minor incidents where she had stuck her nose in a bit too far, but nothing beyond that. 

The official residence listed on her records was out of date - property records indicated she’d vacated the premises several months back, so he checked her schedule for that morning, then backtracked her on the CCTV until he found the house she came from. Checking those records indicated that the flat was leased to one Rhys Williams, presumably her boyfriend. A little more research revealed Williams to be a thoroughly ordinary bloke who drove a lorry for a living. 

While he was checking Rhys Williams out, the team went out on a report of a weevil spotted at one of the local hospitals. Ianto made sure his earpiece was on so that he would be available in case they needed him for anything, and went back to looking for records specific to PC Cooper, rather than her boyfriend. He hacked into the personal computer kept in Williams’ flat, and hit pay dirt. A computerized calendar with police-related reminders, an email account in the name of Gwen Cooper, and a number of documents that, on closer examination, seemed to be notes and reminders to herself about various experiences she’d gone through. 

He left her personal files up so he could go through them again when he had a little more time, then checked her official file at Heddlu one more time. It had been updated, only an hour previous. Medical treatment, for a concussion. At… wait, that was the same hospital the others were at, the one with the weevil. 

He was actually reaching for his earpiece to contact Jack, when it buzzed in his ear.

“Ok, Ianto?”

It was Jack.

“I’m here, what do you need?”

“Can you meet us at the plass? I’m going to drive the SUV up there so when our nosy officer follows us we’ll all disappear on the lift.”

Nosy officer? Well, looked like Jack had been right to be interested in PC Cooper, she must have seen something while they were weevil hunting, and followed the team from the hospital.

“No problem. I assume you want me to drive the SUV down to the carpark?”

“You read my mind.”

“I do my job” Ianto retorted, dryly. And to prove it - “I’ve found out all I need to know about WPC Gwen Cooper. I’ll have it on your desk to read when you get back.”

“Brilliant. Thanks Ianto.”

And Jack signed off. 

Ianto quickly printed up all the relevant records that Jack would need to see (he’d lied, of course, about finding everything he himself needed to know about PC Cooper, but he did know everything that JACK would need to know, which was all Jack needed to know about it), set the printouts on Jack’s desk, and headed for the (not-invisible) lift that would take him outside to wait for the team.

(*).(*).(*).(*).(*)

It was always odd, standing on the invisible lift. Crowds of tourists flocking the Plass, not one of them even noticing he was there. They noticed the SUV, of course, when it pulled up just a few metres from where he stood, stopping somewhat more abruptly than necessary. He rolled his eyes. Jack did tend to drive like a maniac - or an American, which he supposed was fair enough - which didn’t do much for the “secret” part of the “secret organization” the worked for. 

The doors opened, and as Ianto approached the driver’s side door (making sure the SUV was at all times between him and loading zone where the police car had pulled in behind them), Jack stepped to the back and looked through the back window.

Ianto looked the question at him.

“Weevil in the back. Just checking, it’s still sedated.”

“That’s… good to know. And what if it hadn’t been?”

Jack clapped Ianto on the shoulder and grinned.

“See you downstairs. Don’t take too long.”

As Ianto pulled the SUV away from the curb, the rest of the team walked “impressively” towards the lift. 

A grumbly, growly snore came from the boot. 

“Right then. Weevil. What shall we do with you?”

(*).(*).(*).(*).(*)

It hadn’t been that difficult after all. The fireman’s carry Owen had once taught him was far more efficient than the dummy drag he’d used when he pulled Lisa from the burning wreck that had been their workplace, their life. It had been a matter of only a few minutes to take the unconscious alien to the cell nearest the car park and secure it for later. Normally one of the others would take a weevil to the sewers to release it (after field tagging it so they could ensure it didn’t leave the sewers again), but Jack had said to be quick, and he didn’t fancy the cleanup involved if he left the creature to wake up and wreak havoc in the confined space of the SUV.

Once he shut the door of the weevil’s new cell, he headed back up to the main part of the Hub. The invisible lift was just descending as he walked in. They must have waiting to enjoy the sight of one of Cardiff’s finest being dressed down for improperly parking in a bus loading zone. Not that he blamed them, he would no doubt have found it amusing as well.

Before Jack had even stepped off the lift, he began barking orders.

“Ianto, keep an eye on her and police records, she’s going to do all she can to find us. Humans with a puzzle are like a dog with a bone, Tosh, make sure they don’t know about the dead porter, make it look like a suicide or something.”

“No problem,” Tosh said as she turned on her computer. Ianto barely kept from rolling his eyes. Did Jack really think that they didn’t know their jobs? Especially Tosh? She proved him right a second later. 

“I’ll have someone say they saw him leave as well.”

“Brilliant, sometimes I worry that you’re getting too good at hiding bodies. I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side.”

Ok, maybe Jack did notice how remarkable Tosh was at her job. He would probably never admit that Ianto himself was good at his job, but acknowledging Tosh’s skill was… something. Of course Jack would assume that everything Ianto had found out about PC Cooper was redundant and unnecessary, just because it confirmed his pre-existing assumption about “humans,” instead of noticing how rare these qualities actually were in the general public. That Rhys bloke, Cooper’s lorry-driver of a boyfriend - he wouldn’t be ‘like a dog with a bone,’ that was for sure. And her partner, PC Andy Davidson - he’d been faced with puzzles quite a few times in his recorded career, and had always been content to let them rest.

“Everyone else,” Jack continued, snapping Ianto out of his thoughts, “I’ve got nothing that needs doing so get on with your own projects and all the normal paperwork. Oh, and on that note - Ianto! What did you do with the weevil?”

“I put it in the cells. Owen’s been talking about getting a pet weevil for a while, thought he might want this one. It obviously likes doctors.”

“Oh, ha ha, very funny” Owen’s sarcasm was in full swing. Though he paused before settling in at his desk. “Although, actually, that’s useful. Thanks, Tea-boy.”

Acknowledgement was acknowledgement, even mixed, Ianto tried to remind himself. It was rare for Owen to say something nice at all, he should probably be grateful. Maybe he would have been - if it hadn’t been punctuated with the dismissive nickname Owen had coined as soon as he’d arrived. 

“She needs a name though,” Owen continued. She? Well, he would know, he was used to examining “lady parts.” The doctor’s face lit up with an evil grin. “I know who she reminds me of! My lovely mother - Janet!”

Tosh laughed and said something or other, but Ianto lost interest. He watched for a second as Lucy settled herself in front of a work-station and pulled out one of the many cheat sheets that Tosh had pulled up for her. She glanced over at him for a second, he caught her eye then rolled his own. She grinned back, obviously enjoying the random banter between the teammates (all but him), and he smiled, tightly. Then he turned. He hadn’t had the chance to check on Lisa yet today - and with the rest of the team busy, this was the perfect chance.


	12. Visitor

It wasn’t a bad visit with Lisa, he supposed. He’d had the chance to adjust her pain medication, she’d said he made her feel better by coming. If he’d been able to ease her burden, even a little, then it had to be worth the visit. It was just… it hurt, more and more every time. And it didn’t help that she kept pushing. Every time he visited lately, she was pressing him more and more, what had he found? Was there anything new in his search to get her OUT OF THIS D****D BED!! And he had to answer “No.” No, there wasn’t. And the guilt was becoming overwhelming. He was beginning to wonder if he’d even done the right thing in rescuing her. He’d wanted to save her, but was he just condemning her to a meaningless half-life? Even just choosing to step away from his tasks in order to visit her was becoming harder and harder. 

It wasn’t her fault, of course. She didn’t ask to be half-converted, and she didn’t ask him to rescue her. She’d been screaming in such agony, and he knew Torchwood well enough to know that none of the newly converted cybermen would be allowed to live - had he really done her any favors? Especially if he couldn’t find any way to free her from her constant torment. Well, there was one way - but he knew that he would never, ever be strong enough to make that choice. Not even if it was her only way out. He knew that - and he kind of hated himself for it.

He passed the gun range, and he poked his head in. Maybe talking it out with Lucy would help. But the range was empty. He wasn’t surprised. When she’d hacked into CRIMNET earlier, he knew she was trying to find John Tucker’s family - something about the murdered man having said that his little brother could have his comic books. That phone conversation can’t have been much more comfortable for her than his own visit with Lisa. If he knew Lucy, and he was beginning to suspect that he did, she was probably still in the middle of it. She’d planned to pretend she was a friend of his from uni, and the family would surely want to spend time talking with someone who knew him. And Lucy would do it - she’d talk as long as she felt they needed her, even though she’d only met him once, for two minutes after he’d already been killed. That was Lucy all over. 

Ianto was glad Jack had chosen not only not to retcon her, but to give her a job with Torchwood. And not only a job, but the hope of a promotion, as soon as she met some basic requirement. Which, come to think…

He ducked into the archives - yesterday, while he was waiting for a free moment to speak with Jack on Lucy’s behalf, he’d pulled together a bunch of files from the archives and set them all together in one place, meaning to get them to her later before he was interrupted by the new quest to find the WPC Jack had noticed. He opened the locked cabinet he’d left them in, pulled the stack of papers (nearly a reem - she’d be busy for a while), and headed back up to the main portion of the Hub.

** ** ** ** 

Lucy wasn’t at her desk. Ianto looked around, but couldn’t see her anywhere from where he stood - although the remainder of the team was standing around Tosh’s monitor, apparently watching CCTV footage. He set the papers down and stepped in that direction. Jack looked up. He looked at the paperwork, then at Ianto.

“That for Lucy’s weapons database?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll let her know when she comes down.”

“Thank you. Where is she?”

Jack jerked his head upwards, indicating the boardroom. Ianto nodded acknowledgment, before heading to the cleaning closet for supplies. The glass surrounding the armory was looking smudgy again. Why there was so much glass in an underground base… it was nearly impossible to keep clean. Of course the glass surrounding Jack’s office was a lot worse - with the bottle of glass-cleaner and some towels, he headed over in that direction - but as he passed the workstation he paused to see what the others were looking at. 

PC Cooper was up on the Plass, studying the stones around the waterfall. Jack cracked a smile, not taking his eyes off the screen.

“Like a dog with a bone, didn’t I say so?”

Lucy came out of the boardroom, and down the stairs into the main part of the Hub. She came up next to Ianto and looked at the screen as well. 

“How long has she been there”

“About ten minutes. How did the phone call go?” Jack asked.

“As well as it could.” She shrugged. “I’m not totally sure he believed me, but he was happy to speak to anyone about his son.”

“Well, let’s keep an eye on PC Gwen Cooper, but get back to work. Lucy, can you get started on the weapons database you’ve been talking about? Ianto has found you loads of forms and files in the archive for you to start with. He’s put them on your desk.”

Lucy caught Ianto’s eye and smiled a thank you.

“No problem”

“Ianto, I know it looks fine, but I want this Hub spotless, just in case she does get in. It needs to look like the perfect underground alien hunting base.”

Ianto nodded, and headed back down to the lower level of the main room. Jack’s windows would take too much time to look ‘spotless,’ and in the meantime leaving them alone would contribute to a ‘film noir’ feel, which felt appropriate to the idea of the “perfect underground alien hunting base.” The armory, on the other hand, would look far more impressive if the glass walls sparkled with perfect clarity.

Ianto stepped into the armory. Beyond the smudged and fingerprinted glass, Lucy flipped through the stack of papers, grimacing at their disorder, while Ianto sprayed the glass cleaner, and wiped it clear with paper towels. Eventually, she turned the entire stack upside down and began to go through them one by one.

!(*)!(*)!(*)!(*)!

Two and a half hours later, the armory walls were clear as crystal, and every floor swept. Lucy’s stack of papers was either a lot shorter, or a lot taller - depending on which stack you were talking about, and Ianto was working on binning the piles of rubbish that still littered almost every horizontal surface. 

“She’s given up!” Owen cried out, triumphantly. “I knew she would.” 

Ianto glanced at the screen, to see that PC Cooper was indeed no longer out on the Plass. 

“Almost three hours - she’s stubborner than I would have thought,” Suzie commented - setting aside the knife she’d been working on and picking up the glove again.

“Humans - dogs with a bone. Didn’t I say that?” Jack practically crowed.

“Yes, you did. That would be the third time today, sir, if I recall correctly.”

Lucy looked up at Ianto and smirked back.

“She hasn’t given up, you do know that, right?”

Tosh gestured at the screen, now empty of human life.

“Two and a half hours, but now she’s not there. Of course she’s given up. Hasn’t she?”

Lucy just smiled serenely at Tosh and turned back to her papers. 

“She’ll be back,” she muttered - quietly enough that Ianto was probably the only one who heard her.

Ianto got back to work. The Hub still wasn’t “perfect,” and out of all of them, he’d lay money on Lucy being right. 

Sure enough, fifteen minutes later Gwen crossed back in front of the water tower, heading towards the bay and carrying two pizza boxes.

Ianto stole a quick glance over at Lucy, who caught his eye and grinned.

“Well, at least I don’t have to order out tonight, she’s done the work for us.”

He raised an eyebrow at Lucy, who ducked and raised her hand to her face - not quite muffling the giggle, though he doubted the others noticed.

“Ok,” Jack finally spoke up. “This is what we’re going to do. She’s going to come in here and we’re going to ignore her, pretend like she’s not there and not important. Everyone at your desk and get on with something. If she wants to talk to us, she’s going to have to be the one to start that conversation. Ianto, you go upstairs and let her in.”

*****

The lift was halfway to the top level before Ianto realized he was still holding the bag of rubbish he’d been collecting. A large, contractor-sized black garbage bag would not fit with the image of the secret underground base - as the lift door opened he hurried to the tourist office and to his private office behind the beaded curtain so he could stash it before their visitor arrived. He nearly made it, the outer door opening just as he tucked the half-full bag behind the door.

He turned and stood, tugging his jacket to smooth and straighten it - then he noticed a mug he’d apparently left on his desk earlier in the day, unfinished. The coffee would be at an undrinkable temperature, but maybe it would add something to his “performance.” He caught it up and stepped to the door again, to get his first in person look at the woman he’d been stalking for the last two days.

She wasn’t in uniform, and she clutched the two pizza boxes to her chest as if they were a security blanket as she looked around the small office uncertainly.

He stepped through the bead curtain and smiled at her. She didn’t even realize that what she was looking awkwardly at was actually the Hub-access door. It took a second for her to notice he’d come out, and when she did she stammered quite awkwardly.

“Oh hi, sorry I’m late.” She was every bit as Welsh as Ianto himself. “Someone ordered pizza?”

“Who’s it for?”

“I think it’s a… Mr Harkness?” 

There had been many pizza delivery girls through the tourist office - even the ones on their first day had never telegraphed “I don’t know what I’m doing” as clearly as PC Cooper did. He almost felt sorry for her, as he pushed the security button under the office end of the counter, closing the outer door with a sharp click. She looked over in alarm, then back at Ianto, clearly feeling rather trapped. 

He stepped over to the other end of the counter, and pressed the other button. With a grinding noise, the Hub-access door swung outward into the stone corridor that led to the lift. She watched it open, then turned back and stared again at Ianto.

“Don’t keep him waiting.” 

She hesitated, turned to the door. Ianto took a drink - ok, it was still drinkable after all - and set the mug down by his computer. Gwen hesitated in the doorway and turned back to look at him one more time. He might have been enjoying this a little more than he should, but he raised a brow and mouthed “go” to her - FINALLY, she turned and stepped through into the stone tunnel. He pushed the button again so it closed behind her, then settle down at his desk to pretend to get some work done. It wouldn’t do to follow too closely, after all.

#@#@#@#

He waiting about half an hour, before grabbing the rubbish bag and heading back toward the lift. As the blast doors opened, he heard Lucy’s voice.

“...DVD rental place. I’ve watched all the stuff at Ianto’s now.”

“Did I hear my name?” 

He glanced up at the office platform where the team gathered - all but Suzie, who was at her desk, and Jack, who along with Gwen was nowhere to be seen.

Lucy shrugged.

“Just saying I’ve watched all your DVDs.” 

Ianto glanced past her to the coffee table. Damn. Besides the empty pizza boxes on the workstations - had no one saved him even a single slice? - there was another pizza box, a nearly collapsing stack of dvds and cassettes, a roll of tissues and about half a dozen drinks bottles. He probably should have taken care of that before washing the windows.

As Ianto began to sweep the rubbish into his bag, Lucy headed back to her desk.

“What do you want done with these files?” she called to Ianto. “Back into the archives, or does my locked cupboard work just as well?”

“As long as they are locked up, I don’t mind.” Ianto said absently, dropping the drinks bottles straight into the rubbish bag rather than bothering to keep them separate for recycling. He just didn’t care anymore. “Makes it easier for me if I don’t have to put them away and then find them again tomorrow morning.”

Just then Jack walked back up into the hub, along with Gwen Cooper. 

“Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper.”

Jack began the introductions.

“DOCTOR Owen Harper, thank you.” Owen corrected.

“Toshiko Sato, computer genius,” Jack continued, ignoring Owen’s interjection. “Suzie Costello - she’s second in command.” Suzie smirked up at them and continued polishing… whatever she was polishing. “Lucy Smith, working on becoming our weapons expert,” Lucy smiled as she turned the key to lock the desk cupboard.

Then Jack turned to Ianto.

“And Ianto Jones. Ianto tidies up after us and gets us everywhere on time.”

He stood a little straighter, slightly flushed at Jack actually turning the spotlight onto him. 

“I try my best.”

“And he looks good in a suit.”

Again? Jack was...ugh.

“Careful.” Ianto teased, as Jack swept past him towards his office. “That’s harassment, sir.”

PC Cooper looked around, apparently feeling every bit as uncertain and trapped as she had when Ianto had first shut the outer door of the tourist office. It probably wasn’t right to keep watching, as if this were a drama on the telly (which, according to Lucy, it actually was in her world), but no one wanted to miss this, so she had every eye on her or Jack.

She hesitated for a second, before speaking out.

“But, why are you telling me their names? I’m not supposed to know, am I? This is classified, isn’t it?”

Jack grinned back at her.

“Way beyond classified.”

He turned to head into his office, but she broke in.

“Then you shouldn’t be telling me.” 

He stopped, then he turned to look at her. She seemed to shrink.

“What are you going to do to me?”

“What do you imagine?”

He turned back again, this time not stopping as she kept going.

“Well, I’ve seen too much, your names and everything, and the Weevil, and…” She looked over at Tosh. “You can dump a man in the water and lie about his death.”

Again, Ianto nearly felt sorry for her. Torchwood was dangerous, she wasn’t actually wrong to be alarmed. Suddenly, he wasn’t enjoying this show anymore. He started towards Jack’s office - there were still a few things he had to clear before the day ended. 

Jack whipped back around just as Ianto went in, newly-donned greatcoat flaring out as he spun.

“Ok, Tosh, finish that calibration in the morning. Owen, first thing in the morning get ahold of Chandler and Bell, ‘cause I think they’re lying. Ianto, if he needs backup, then you’d better be on standby. Lucy, tomorrow morning I want a plan of what you’re going to do with a rough estimate how long it’s going to take if you do it full time and if you leave it as a side project. Suzie, I know it’s a pain in the ass but I need the costing on the glove research.” 

Gwen stared around until Jack suddenly turned and pointed directly at her.

“As for you, you’re coming with me. This way.”

He walked away, and Gwen followed. 

Ianto turned back and pulled the full bin liner from Jack’s rubbish bin and tied it off.

He pulled a fresh bin liner from the bottom of the bin (quite the time saver, to have three or four already folded up inside), opened the top, then jerked it down to open it fully. He let it settle into the bin, then looked up to see Lucy.

He decided to leave the empty rubbish bag in the office - he’d be early enough to clear it in the morning anyway. 

“How long are you planning on staying?”

They walked together towards the blast doors and the lift.

“Long enough to make sure Miss Cooper doesn’t leave herself a reminder about Torchwood.” 

He wondered for a second why she assumed he wouldn’t be going home with her as they usually did, but then remembered that this was, apparently, an Episode - the first one, in fact.

“What if she just writes it down with pen and paper?” Lucy asked, genuinely curious.

“I did some research earlier, looked into her home computer, emails, that sort of thing. She’s not the kind of person to write a diary from what I can tell, but she also relies on the computer email alerts to remind her to do stuff. So the balance of probability says that she’ll store it on her computer.”

Lucy stared at him. Trying not to let on, he quickly checked to make sure he hadn’t mussed up something on his suit when replacing the bin liners - but he hadn’t.

“That’s kind of scary that you know that. Brilliant, but scary.”

He laughed. 

“It’s my job - I clean up after them, remember?”

“It’s more than cleaning up after them.” 

Lucy always argued, every time he was dismissive about his job, always trying to tell him how important he was to Torchwood. He loved that about her, especially given how invisible he felt to the rest of the team. If he wasn’t careful, he might… no, better not to think that way.

“Anyway,” she broke into his revery, “what I was going to ask was, do you want me to wait with dinner or not?”

Even having no idea what she had planned, that sounded good. He almost said so, but stopped.

“It’ll probably be fairly late. You can take the car, and I’ll go via the chippy next to the taxi rank.”

“Ok, just wanted to check. I’m planning an early night, so I’ll probably see you tomorrow morning.” 

They’d reached the tourist office by now. Ianto stepped behind his desk, while Lucy headed to the outside door.

“See ya, Ianto.”

She turned to catch his eye, and he smiled at her.

“Bye Lucy. Enjoy the new book.”

She laughed. “I’d ask how you know, but I’m aware that you always know everything.”

He didn’t bother trying to conceal his smile.

“It was delivered to the house this morning. I found out the usual way, with my eyes…”

She snorted, his words apparently made funnier by something or other known only to her. She regained composure, and grinned back.

“Ok, well, like I said I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” 

With a smile and wave, she headed out. 

He watched her walk along the Bay until she turned onto the Plass and disappeared. 

He closed the door to the tourist office, and settled in at his desk. He turned on his computer, once more hacked into PC Cooper’s PC, and settled in to wait. It might be a long night.


	13. Lisa's New Hope

“No, Doctor Tanizaki, there are no cybermen available for you to study!”

Ianto was setting Tosh’s coffee down at her workstation when Jack’s voice burst out from behind the cracked door of his office. 

He froze.

“There ARE no remains from Canary Wharf. I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but it’s not true.”

“Oi, tea-boy!”

“No, they were all incinerated. All of them. I don’t know why UNIT even told you to call me, they should have told the same thing.”

“OI! Earth to Tea-boy, come in Teaboy!”

Tosh nudged Ianto, and he finally realized Owen had been calling him.

“Tosh! Quit flirting with the tea-boy and let him bring me my coffee!”

He hurried over with the doctor’s coffee - Tosh, flirting with him? Didn’t Owen realize she only had eyes for one person on this team, and it certainly wasn’t Ianto?

Jack’s voice had died down to an indistinguishable mumble, but the irritated tone was still pretty obvious, even through the filthy glass window-walls.

Ianto stepped into Jack’s office, just as the handset went flying through the air. Without even thinking, he’d reached out and caught it before it could crash through the office window.

He looked at the phone, and then over at Jack. He raised an eyebrow.

“I wasn’t aware the cricket team were holding try-outs.”

Jack cracked a smile.

“I hate these modern phones. Push a button, the call’s over. Where’s the satisfaction in that? Time was, you could slam that baby down as hard as you needed to. Try it now, you’ll break the phone.”

“And you won’t if you hurl it through a window?”

Ianto stepped forward and handed Jack his mug of coffee.

“You know what I just don’t understand?” Jack blurted out, as he took the mug from Ianto.

“I just don’t understand how anyone could WANT to study the cybermen. You were at Canary Wharf, right?”

Ianto stood rigid as Jack addressed him.

“I mean, you know what those things can do - why would ANYONE want to keep one, even if just to study it?”

“I...what brought this on, sir?”

Jack sighed, settled back into his seat.

“I’m sorry, Ianto, I know it doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s just… this IDIOT from Kobayashi Prosthetics has this insane idea that if he could study the ‘remains of those robots from Canary Wharf’ that he could, I don’t know, reverse engineer it or something. Hell, he even thinks if he could reverse engineer one, he could reverse the whole process, make them human again.”

He slammed his hand down on the table, nearly knocking his mug over in the process.

“That’s just not how it works. Can you believe he called us irresponsible, for destroying the remains? Damn it, if we hadn’t destroyed them…”

Jack sighed and slumped in his chair. He stared through Ianto, as if he saw something else, someone else perhaps.

“Oh Rose.” he muttered, almost too quiet for Ianto to even hear.

Jack sighed again, then looked up, as if surprised to see anyone standing there.

“I’m sorry, Ianto. Didn’t mean to dump all that on you.”

“Quite all right sir. I’ll just get going now.”

“Of course. Don’t let me keep you.”

Jack turned his focus back to whatever papers littered his desk. Ianto was essentially invisible again.

He walked silently out of Jack’s office - quietly pocketing the handset that Jack had hurled at him before anyone noticed he still had it.

<^>*<^>*<^>

As soon as he had settled himself back at his desk in the tourist office, Ianto took out the phone, and pressed the button that called up the ‘call history.’ He selected the most recent incoming call, took a deep breath, and pressed ‘send.’

“Kobayashi Prosthetics, how can I help you?”

“Yes, I would like to speak with Dr. Tanizaki, if I may.”

“One moment. Who can I say is calling?”

Ianto hesitated.

“Sir?”

“Tell him… Torchwood.”

“Please hold.” 

He was left to hold for quite a few minutes. Ianto used that time to find out what he could about Kobayashi Prosthetics - they did seem to be a leader in cutting-edge cybernetic research, and reading between the lines it was clear that Dr. Tanizaki was not overscrupulous if there were an opportunity to advance the field, and most particularly to increase the prestige of his company.

Finally, the click of the line being opened again.

“What is it, Captain Harkness? I have already told you that I do not wish to join you in Cardiff for a drink unless you can help me, which you tell me you are unable to do.”

Join him for a drink? Oh, of course. Jack wanted to retcon the man. He would.

“This isn’t Captain Harkness, Doctor Tanizaki.”

There was a pause.

“It’s not? I was told that it was Torchwood on the line.”

“Yes.” Ianto breathed slowly in and out. “I do work with Torchwood. That is how I became aware of your quest.”

“Who are you, and what do you know of my so-called quest?”

“My name is Ianto Jones, and I believe that you wish to study the remains of those converted in the battle of Canary Wharf, am I correct?”

“You are. However Captain Harkness has insisted to me that there is nothing to study - that all remains had been incinerated.”

Ianto took a deep breath. There was no going back if he continued. 

“Captain Harkness was wrong. Not all the remains were incinerated.”

“But, this is wonderful news! Would it be possible for you to arrange for me to examine these remains?”

“I believe that it would. When can you come?”

“They are in Cardiff?”

To talk of Lisa in such impersonal terms, it hurt.

“Yes, she is.”

“I am in New York until this weekend, and Los Angeles for the remainder of the following week. Then I have important business in Sendai, followed by an important meeting at our headquarters in Tokyo. I can be in Cardiff in three weeks time - will that work for you?”

Three weeks - three weeks to wait until Lisa could be saved. 

Three weeks - only three weeks to wait and Lisa could be saved.

“Yes, Tanizaki-san” Ianto used the honorific he remembered was important in Japanese culture. “Three weeks will work very well. I will see you then.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jones. I look forward to our meeting.”

(*).(*).(*).(*)

There was just enough time to slip down to the basement to tell Lisa the exciting news before it was time to leave the Hub for the day to go home. It would have been terrific to walk home with Lucy and share Dr. Tanizaki’s upcoming visit, but she decided to stay late to wrap up the day’s start on her weapons database project. 

Instead, he walked alone, wandering the streets lost in thought. 

Finally he turned for home, expecting to find Lucy there, hoping that talking to her could help him sort out his overwhelming hopes and fears - but the flat was still and quiet and dark. He let himself in, and turned on the telly to watch the news.

He barely paid attention - it all blurred together anyway. Someone had been killed in a smash-up in Penarth, a charity shop was first in line for a makeover, a five-year-old girl from Blackwood was going back to school after months of treatment for severe burns.

He did find it amusing that the public was being assured that even though the Gwent police were taking part in a ten month trial to allow non-firearms officers to carry Tasers, routine officers on patrol would NOT be carrying the ‘electric-shock weapon.’ 

That actually was somewhat comforting, actually. He didn’t really relish the thought of anyone on the team taking injuries from nervous PCs if the Rift happened to send them any ‘gifts’ in the Penarth area. Although he could just imagine the reaction of any poor beat constable who made the mistake of tazing Lucy. That would certainly never happen again.

As if his musings had summoned her, the door to the flat opened. 

“I thought you’d be back earlier.” He commented without looking.

She gave a deep, exhausted sounding sigh, and he turned.

He was on his feet before he even noticed. Not only did she look utterly drained, but she had a dark red stain on the sleeve of her hoodie, and a look he’d never seen before on her face - at least, he’d never seen it unless you count his own in the mirror in the days following his rescue of Lisa. 

“What happened?” 

He quickly muted the TV. She slumped her way towards the sofa, clearly moving almost entirely on autopilot.

“Where should I start?”

She sagged down into the sofa, and Ianto sat down again beside her.

“From the beginning.”

She held her left hand up and started counting on her fingers, slamming her other index finger onto each one as she made each new statement.

“Well, we’ve got a team meeting at nine a.m. tomorrow morning, it turns out Suzie was the one behind those murders, she blew her brains out in front of Gwen - who was already close to defeating the Retcon - she remembers everything now.”

“Suzie did WHAT?”

“Gave herself completely to the glove. It worked better with fresh and traumatic deaths, so that’s what she did.”

“Bloody hell!”

“Exactly.” Lucy agreed. “Jack got there in time to stop her killing Gwen so she killed herself instead. I was watching on the CCTV.”

No wonder she looked like death warmed over. 

“Are you ok?”

“I wasn’t nearly shot, and my brains are still in my head,” she grumbled irritably.

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m fine. I need a bit more food and a lot of sleep.” She smiled - Lucy had one of the best ‘I’m fine’ masks Ianto had ever seen, but he could still see just how shaken she was underneath it. “Kind of ruined my plans for tonight.” 

He decided to pretend that the mask was still firmly in place, instead of making it worse by letting her know he saw it for how it actually was - hanging by less than the thinnest of threads.

“We’ll get a DVD another night.” He shrugged, fitting his own mask in place. This was not the time to tell her about Dr. Tanizaki. “So is the meeting tomorrow about Suzie then?”

“Yeah.”

Lucy pushed herself off the sofa to head to the kitchen. It took every bit of restraint Ianto possessed not to wrap his arm around her shoulders, lest she stumble and fall headlong. She needed the fiction that she was fine, and he knew what it was like to need that normality.

“Plus Jack wants to check that the others haven’t taken an alien artifact home” She spoke back over her shoulder. “I said that we hadn’t, so if you have please hand it back in and let Jack know that I didn’t know - I don’t want him to think that I’m a liar.”

“I’ve not got anything.” Ianto smiled, hoping his mask was in place a little better than hers. “Don’t want to get any attention because of Lisa.”

“Well, that’s ok then.” The words were like a punch to the gut - even though he knew she couldn’t possibly intend them to be. 

His mask must have slipped, because she stopped suddenly.

“Not about Lisa, just that I didn’t lie.” She wandered around the kitchen, going first to the refrigerator to get milk, then to the cupboard to get the box of cereal, then back to the drawer next to the sink for a spoon, before pulling a bowl and a second spoon out of the dish drainer.   
“I’m not thinking straight.”

She stared at the cereal box as if she expected it to pour itself. Ianto reached around her, opened the box top, turned the bowl right way up, the poured the rice crispies into the bowl.

“It’s fine, I knew what you meant.”

He’d never seen her this shaken, not even when she’d first woken on the Plas to the faces he now knew were as familiar as her own family - and a lot more welcomed, from what he could gather.

“Yeah, so the meeting is about what’s happened along with how to act with alien artifacts.” 

She poured the milk over her cereal - Ianto was relieved to see that she didn’t fill it more than was needed. Puddles on the sideboard would have been annoying to clear up.

“It’s probably also about Gwen joining the team.” She took a bite of her cereal, started to reach for the milk but Ianto whisked it up to put in the refrigerator. “He’s invited her as well although she’s turning up half an hour after us.”

Lucy didn’t think highly of this Gwen - not that he hadn’t already suspected from grumblings he’d heard under her breath over the past few days.

“Hmm…” there had to be a silver lining - he couldn’t bear to see how vulnerable his friend and flatmate was after what she’d witnessed. “It will keep his attention off me with a new member.”

She gave him a ghost of a smile, before it faded away.

“Yeah, although he hinted that it’ll be my job to get her up to scratch.”

“It probably is, you’re the most recent” he admitted. He was suddenly struck with an image of PC Cooper in the place of the nameless, faceless Gwent police officer who made the mistake of trying out a new Taser on Lucy. He carefully schooled his features before he dared to say more. “Only joining two and a half months ago.”

She looked up at him, suddenly suspicious. He grinned to let her know that he was teasing - she rolled her eyes and turned back to her cereal.

“Great. That will be fun.”

He sat down next to her, pouring himself his own bowl of cereal. They ate together in silence. Finally he broke it.

“So, are you going to tell her about Jack?”

“You mean the immortality that none of us officially know about?”

He smirked. It was nice having a harmless secret for once.

“Yeah, that one - except I’m pretty sure he knows that you know. No show on the telly would leave something like THAT out, would they?”

“Yeah, well - he knows I know. He also knows Gwen knows.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Suzie killed him before she killed herself, before she tried to kill Gwen. Him coming back was why she’s the one in the morgue.”

“Did you…?” He trailed off.

“Did I have to put her there?”

He nodded.

“Yep.”

Oh Lucy. No wonder she looked so fragile tonight. He stepped closer, and put one arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. 

“You know, Yan? This sucks. It absolutely sucks.”

He nodded, resting his head against of the top of hers. 

The moment was broken when Lucy gave an enormous yawn. Ianto smiled, gave her shoulder one last squeeze, and let go.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” He asked gently.

“I’m fine. I just need to get some sleep.

She smiled at him, even though he knew she was lying. Still, after the evening she’d had, he allowed her to think he was fooled.

“Good night, then. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yep. I’ll see you…” a ginormous yawn seemed almost to split the entire room “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She stumbled out of the kitchen and into her room. Ianto waited until he heard her collapse onto the mattress, before he cleared the cereal, the milk, and washed her dishes. Technically, it was her turn, but that was ok. 

Just this once, she’d needed it.

Before he turned in to his room, he paused next to Lucy’s door. There was no sound - he hoped she was resting soundly.

“Good night, Lu,” he murmured. “Sleep well.”


	14. Meteorite

Ianto ran a finger down the DVD tower. Lucy was fixing spaghetti for dinner, and she’d said it would be ready in five - so it was time to choose the movie for the night. He was torn between Galaxy Quest and the latest Harry Potter film when he heard Lucy’s voice coming from the kitchen.

“WHY does it have to be me?”

“Why does what have to be you?”

He asked, pulling the Galaxy Quest DVD from its place and turning to face the kitchen.

“You know I don’t like her - she’s a big a special snowflake as Rose is, and twice as annoying!”

Oh. She was on the phone. With Jack, he realized, hearing the faint voice over the line. While he couldn’t make out any of the words, he recognized the tone of slightly amused irritation the Captain often used whenever confronted with someone who hadn’t quite yet grasped that complaining about his decisions only made him stick to them even more firmly.

“But Jack!”

It was too late. Even Ianto had heard the abrupt breaking of the connecting as Jack hung up on her, and he wasn’t even in the same room. 

Lucy turned and saw him standing in the doorway.

“Why is he making me do this? I’m absolutely the worst person to mentor that - that…”

She sputtered, struggling to think of the world she wanted to use. 

Ianto raised an eyebrow, and held up his DVD choice for her approval. 

She nodded once and turned back to the stovetop.

“It’s going to be a disaster! Even leaving aside what actually happens in the episode…” 

Ianto wandered back into the living room to set up the DVD. Lucy would go on and on - and he might even pick up a couple ‘spoilers’ from her rant, but right now he’d rather just set up the film, collapse onto the sofa and eat dinner while watching Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver (and never forget Alan Rickman - even as a ‘fin-headed monstrosity’ in strange alien makeup the man was brilliant and dry and funny and exactly who Ianto used to wish he could be when he grew up) save the day from the evil alien overlord.

“...and I swear, the first time she goes off on one of her self-righteous ‘I’m more human than you’ tirades, I’m gonna - I’m gonna… I don’t even know what I’m going to do.”

Lucy strode in from the kitchen, carrying two plates of pasta, green salad and garlic bread.

Ianto rolled his eyes at her dramatics. She stopped mid rant and glared at him.

“Does rolling help?”

Now she was channeling Sigourney Weaver.

Caught off guard, he snorted. He tried to play it off as a cough, but they both knew it didn’t fool anyone.

“Yes.” He stood, brushing imaginary dust off his vest and tugging it straight. “Yes, it does.”

She handed him one of the plates and shook her head.

“But I just don’t know what the hell Jack is thinking, he KNOWS-”

Whatever it was that Jack knew was lost in the thunderous rumble that suddenly filled the sky. 

An orange glow came in through the kitchen window, so both Ianto and Lucy hurried back into the kitchen to see what it was. It almost went without saying that, barring a nuclear attack or a plane on fire, it would be something they’d have to deal with. 

Even as he watched the fireball race across the sky, Ianto was already piling his spaghetti onto the two slices of garlic bread to make a sandwich he could eat on the go. 

There was a distinctive tremor as whatever it was hit the ground, and quite close too. Ianto looked over at Lucy - she met his eyes and they both sighed at the same time. The “Three Amigos...in SPACE” would have to wait for another night.

Ianto took a bite of his spaghetti sandwich, pulled on his shirt and pulled his loosened-but-still-tied tie over his head as he did up the buttons. He pulled out his mobile just in time to see the text message from Torchwood - quickly he dismissed the message and pulled up a search engine to find out whatever he could. 

Meanwhile Lucy was putting her own pasta into a thermos - it made sense, Ianto would be able to finish his spaghetti sandwich while walking to the Hub, but rather than have the team wait for Lucy to get there, Jack or Owen would come by the flat to pick her up on their way to… well, in this case apparently the crash site. 

Ianto slid into his suit jacket, tightened his tie, and grabbed the remainder of her dinner as he headed out the door. Just as he stepped outside, the SUV screeched to a halt beside him, and Lucy rushed out - barely remembered to close the door behind her, but not, Ianto noticed, forgetting her thermos full of dinner. 

The SUV roared away, and Ianto turned and walked briskly toward the Plas. Whatever was going on, it was probably going to be a long night.

*** *** ***

It was about an hour later when Jack checked in on the headset. He didn’t tell Ianto much, only that the meteorite had been breached and some sort of alien gas had escaped. Still, it was enough for him to get started looking for possible related events while the team made their way back to the Hub.

Iato was sure Lucy knew what was going on - and judging from her early-evening grumbling, he suspected that she at least was pretty confident that the blame for whatever was happening fell squarely at the feet of the newest team member. 

Sure enough, the first thing through the blast doors was Gwen Cooper’s voice.

“I’m so sorry!”

“Seriously - stop saying that.” Ianto wondered whether Lucy had warned the newbie that repeated apologies - no matter how necessary - really irritated Jack. Knowing her resentment toward the woman, Ianto wouldn’t be surprised if she’d left that piece of advice off.

“I am though, I mean really...I mean really, really sorry! God, I can’t believe it.”

“Didn’t they teach you health and safety in the police?”

Come to think of it, Owen wasn’t likely to be won over by groveling either. He hoped that at least Tosh would cut Gwen a little slack.

Just then the monitor next to him sounded a notification alert. This might be something.

He quickly sent a screenshot to the printer in Jack’s office and headed in by the back way - grabbing a clipboard from the top of one of the video games. It wasn’t where they belonged, but he’d stopped being surprised at the odd things he’d found in even odder places after… well that was irrelevant.

The rest of the team had gone down to the autopsy bay - as Ianto headed that way, irritated voices drifted up.

“On the plus side, we’ve got good evidence, relatively undamaged.”

Jack was trying to play peacemaker, apparently.

“On the downside,” interjected Owen, clearly uninterested in being pacified, “there’s an alien on the loose - we don’t know where it is, why it’s here, or what it’s going to do”

“Don’t forget,” Lucy added, “it’s a gaseous form and therefore we have no way of knowing how it’s going to act, I mean, it could possess somebody for all we know.”

Ianto rolled his eyes - he loved Lucy, really he did, but she was NOT a master of subtlety. Or did it just seem that way to him because she’d already let slip to him that this was an Episode?

“All right, you two - stop it!”

Then again, if she was trying to drop a hint to Jack, she probably should have been a little more blatant even than she was. All Jack seemed to see was two teammates ganging up on his poor helpless new recruit.

“This is the worst first day ever!”

He almost did feel sorry for Gwen, whatever she’d done was almost certainly a simple rookie mistake that any one of them could have made (though rookie mistakes did get people killed). 

“We all mistakes - get over it.” Jack was losing patience with the whole drama. “I seem to remember that neither Owen or Lucy settled in to Torchwood completely cleanly either.”

“I bet they didn’t set an alien gas on the loose.” Gwen said morosely.

“No,” Jack conceded. “They didn’t do that - but our job now is to find and recover whatever it was that came out of there.”

It was the perfect entrance cue. Ianto cleared his throat to get the team’s attention.

“This might help.” He kept his eyes on the printout as he read. “Nightclub death, been phoned in to 999. Circumstances are a little unusual. Might be connected.”

Gwen rushed up the stairs and grabbed the report from his hand.

“This, this isn’t normal.”

“What have you got?” Jack asked.

“A kid died and turned into dust at the point of orgasm.”

“Yeah,” Jack shut the lid on the meteorite sample “I can see how that’s unusual. Let’s go then.”

As everyone headed out of the autopsy room and toward the blast doors, Lucy paused by Ianto.

“Thanks for finding it, Ianto.”

He really didn’t understand. How could she be so… he didn’t even know what the right word was. She SAW him, and cared. Said please and thank you every time, as if what he did mattered - as if HE mattered. So how could that girl be so irrationally hostile to Gwen, and on the poor woman’s first day?

“No problem.”

She smiled at him, quickly, then rushed to follow the rest of the team, leaving Ianto alone in the Hub to puzzle it over.


	15. Coffee Break

Tosh studied the screens at her workstation, just as she’d been doing for the past several hours. Her eyes drifted closed and her head dipped for just a second in a micro-nap - then with a jerk she pulled her eyes back to the screen. 

Ianto smiled to himself - that was his cue. He headed up towards the coffee station. He doubted the programs that were running actually NEEDED any sort of direct monitoring, but as long as there was the slightest chance, Tosh wasn’t going to leave them unattended. 

There wasn’t anyone else in the Hub who would even notice Tosh’s lapse - Lucy had decided this was the perfect opportunity to train Gwen in the fine art of napping during down time, and Owen wasn’t going to pass up a chance to slack off. Jack was shut up in his office doing who knows what, leaving Tosh on the computer, and Ianto to continue his unending clean-up duties. And to keep poor Tosh caffeinated while the others took their repose.

The cappuccino machine was kept constantly steamed up, ready for him to extract a fresh shot each time anyone needed a fresh boost of caffeine. He turned the grinder on, disconnected the group-handle, and wiped the basket clean before dosing the handle with enough coffee for a double shot of espresso. Normally Tosh prefered a café latte with a single shot, but since she was the only one not getting any sleep today, a double seemed preferable.

He tamped the grounds down, purged the group head, locked the handle into place, and pulled the lever to begin the extraction. While he counted in his head to the twenty-five seconds needed for the ideal flavor, he glanced back past the water tower to the workstation platform. 

Jack stepped out of his office and paced up behind Tosh. He leaned over, muttered something, and Tosh nodded and made some sort of gestures with her hands. Jack nodded and stepped back, but instead of going back to his office he stood at the base of the catwalk stairs and watched the progress. That probably meant that Tosh’s programs were almost done compiling the data. Without even consciously noticing, Ianto pushed the handle back up to stop the flow on Tosh’s espresso. If it was almost done, he should probably get to work on everyone else’s coffee too. 

He shrugged, set Tosh’s mug aside, and pulled the handle off to dump the used grounds and start the process over again. 

He’d pulled everyone’s shots and was busy stretching the last of the milk (he could get two mugs worth from each jug of steamed milk - this last jug was for Lucy and Jack) when Tosh announced the results.

“Gas traces confirmed as vorax and ceranium”

She glanced around the others as she spoke. Owen had been leaned back, balanced in his desk chair, so he just had to sit up. Gwen rolled off the couch where she’d been sprawled, almost tripped over the edge of the coffee table as she jumped up to see what was going on.

“Great,” Jack commented, walking back to look at the screen over Tosh’s shoulder. “My two favorite gases.”

Ianto had the mugs loaded on their tray and had started down the catwalk stairs. Lucy, who had been curled up on the floor just inside the upper platform of the autopsy room with her hoodie doubling as a pillow, rolled over, stretched and threw it back over her head as she stepped in as well to see what was going on. 

“Can we do a check and find out what we know about them?” 

Jack looked pointedly at Owen.

“I’m all over it.”

Owen jumped into action as if he HADN’T just been sleeping on the job.

“What’s this doing?” Gwen demanded of Tosh, right as Ianto passed behind her workstation. 

“I’ve taken an image of the girl from the CCTV of the club,” Tosh explained casually. “This cross-checks her face with the UK population.”

As Ianto handed Jack his coffee (his usual blue-striped mug was still sitting on his desk, so instead Ianto had used a cream-colored mug with, of all things, a dragon-fly printed on it), he saw Lucy try unsuccessfully to suppress a yawn.

“And then it’s my job to find out more about her.” She probably intended just to answer Gwen’s question, since it WAS her job to mentor the newbie - but Ianto knew her well enough to hear the grumbling in her tone of voice. He managed to keep the smile from showing too much - he hoped.

“You can’t have every face in the UK on there” Gwen protested “That would be against civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff…”

Lucy looked torn between amusement and irritation at Gwen’s reaction - but when she saw the mug Ianto held out to her, she had no focus to spare for anything else. She grinned up at him.

“Thanks Yan, you’re an angel.”

He grinned back.

“No problem.”

He glanced up at Jack, who gave a small smirk at their interaction before turning back to Gwen.

“Still doing that ‘you’ instead of ‘we’ thing?” he asked, pointedly.

Just then the program finished running through faces, and the final results flashed red across the screen.

“Damn.” Tosh blurted as the number came up.

“A hundred and nineteen suspects?” Owen asked, incredulous. “This this is supposed to give us a single clear match.”

The coffees all distributed, Ianto stood behind Tosh and Gwen, where he still had a clear view of the screen.

“The CCTV was too low res,” Tosh explained - or complained, she was clearly irritated her program couldn’t get the results she prided herself on. “I’ve tried magnifying and augmenting, but it just breaks up, which means the software can’t function properly.”

“It’s narrowed the numbers down.” It wasn’t her fault, and the program had done the best it could with what it had to work with. There were just some things that AIs weren’t as competent at yet. “I could check through the rest.”

He glanced around to see them all staring at him - well, all but Lucy, who had her lips pressed together, her chin all wrinkly as if she were trying not to give in to some inappropriate reaction. 

He couldn’t resist - somehow she knew what he’d thought about saying, and it really wouldn’t be fair to disappoint her, would it?

“You know, the old fashioned way?” He caught Lucy’s eye with the slightest smirk as he pointed to his own. “With my eyes.”

Maybe it was a little unfair, but she WAS stressing, he could tell she wasn’t actually enjoying ‘babysitting’ the newest team member. And it was so much fun watching her try to keep a straight face when he knew she was going to fail.

As it always did, it started with a snort. Then her face broke into a grin - but almost before it was a grin, it was a giggle. One hand held her coffee, the other curled into a fist that she raised to cover her mouth. She was shaking, her shoulders trembling, starting to double over. 

By then, there was no stopping, and she knew it. He could see the slight helplessness as she started to double over. She reached out, trying to find a place to set her mug before she could break it, or splash coffee all over herself, the equipment or the rest of the team - but the nearest safe surface was the coffee table, and she was in no position to get her mug there safely and upright. It was time to step in - if only because he knew he’d be the one to clean up any mess she made.

He caught her eye and raised an eyebrow. Of course it wouldn’t help her calm down - for some reason he knew that it would almost always get a rise out of her - but as long as she wasn’t in danger of making a mess (and he deftly plucked her mug from her hand to make sure she wasn’t), he didn’t really feel guilty about enjoying the diversion.

“It appears that Lucy has had too much caffeine,” Jack commented. He was enjoying this a bit too much too, or he wouldn’t have blamed Lucy’s lifeblood for her hysterics. Ianto knew the perfect response to that.

“I’ve always got the decaf, sir.”

Lucy’s eyes got huge, and the hysterics stopped at once. She stared at Ianto, looking stunned and even betrayed.

“You wouldn’t dare!”

He raised a brow again, wordlessly asking “wouldn’t I?”

“Give me my coffee!” she pled, reaching for it. He backed away.

“Please, Ianto!” Her eyes drilled into his - as if that would work. He smirked. She should know better, it’s not like he ever gave in to puppy-dog eyes.

“What about the fingerprints I took off the alley wall?”

Although that might not have been the point. When Gwen broke in and split his focus for a second, he realized that somehow Lucy was closer and he’d missed exactly how she’d even managed it. 

Quickly he tried to tune out the rest of the team - he’d give her back her coffee in time, but it would be a bit embarrassing if she managed to get it back before he was ready. 

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tosh look away from her screen at Gwen, and heard Gwen sigh.

“It was a long shot”

This time he caught Lucy’s furtive step - he lowered his eyes to her shuffling feet, then back up to her eyes. She huffed out an irritated breath at being caught. He tilted his chin up at her. Reluctantly, she took a step back.

Owen and Gwen were bickering behind him, pointedly ignoring the coffee drama playing out around them. Jack broke in to stop it before it got too heated.

“The CCTV must have picked up her arrival at the club. Tosh, can you reformat the image recognition software to trace her journey backwards via the street camera network?”

And then, while Tosh was responding to Jack, Ianto made the fatal error. 

Out of habit, before he even noticed he was doing it, his mind started racing, mentally pulling out the map of the city that he held in his head, imagining each camera and each intersection as he ran through each possible route…

“HA!”

Suddenly, he found his hands empty, and Lucy’s triumphant cry rang through the Hub.

“MY COFFEE!!”

“Yes, Lucy, it’s your coffee.” Ianto could almost hear Jack’s eye-roll, though he didn’t even turn around. “Please don’t turn hysterical again.”

Lucy took a long drink from her mug.

“This part of the job bores me,” she whined, then took another sip.

Ianto tuned out her complaints. He’d lost this time, but it really was a bit ridiculous in the first place so he turned towards Tosh’s workstation. Lucy deserved to be bored - if she hadn’t beaten him so unjustly, she’d still have the challenge of getting her coffee back, instead of having to do actual work. 

Actual work, which really did need to be done. Tosh unslaved one of her monitors and handed Ianto a second bluetooth mouse and another keyboard so he could scroll through the matches and try to narrow them down further while she carried out her CCTV search using the rest of her workstation.

Vaguely, he heard Jack answer Lucy, and Lucy shoot back some suggestion about cross-checking addresses of the potential matches with the route Tosh was tracking. It wasn’t a bad idea, but he knew that Tosh was already doing it before any suggestions were made - honestly, why would you hire a genius and then assume she didn’t know how to follow common sense procedures? She had been the one to train him, and he’d found everything he needed to find on PC Cooper with even less to go on than they had now with this girl.

While his eyes searched through the hundred and nineteen photos, Ianto let his mind tune them out and ramble where it wanted. He’d found that worked best when he was trying to make a visual connection when he didn’t have other cues related to his search.

Behind him, Lucy was preparing to get Gwen into the system, and said something about Jack not minding her moving herself to an office by the shooting range - which of course Jack broke into. Ianto smirked to himself - Jack did hate to let someone else assume they knew what he was thinking, even if it actually WAS what he was thinking, so he was making the token protest that meant that Lucy would get what she wanted but he didn’t HAVE to let her, this was him being nice…

Before Jack even gave Lucy the permission, Ianto starting planning the logistics. He wasn’t even trying to, but he did know of several desks down in storage and he weighed them against each other to decide which fit the space and Lucy’s needs best, mentally stood in front of the storage shelves picturing what ‘extra’ items she’d enjoy - there HAD to be something to fidget with, and he should probably make sure there was a sealable container for her chocolates, and a dustbin somewhere otherwise he didn’t want to imagine the litter of wrappers and boxes he’d have to clear up. 

He had tuned out all the dialogue around him, but the tone of voice told him when Jack had finally let Lucy know she’d get her way. She thanked him, of course, but there was something oddly disappointed in her tone, as if Jack had said something else he didn’t mean to that bothered her. 

All this time he’d gone through the matches - rejecting the ones that were obviously NOT the girl in the alleyway, and setting aside the ones that might be to go through again when he’d done. From a hundred and nineteen, he’d knocked the numbers down to a more manageable twenty. He looked over at Tosh’s calculations, pulled up the addresses and settled in for his second pass.

“Got a hit,” he announced ten minutes later.

“Carys Jones, 17, lives at 10 Brook Street, near the Stadium. I’m patching the information through to the SUV’s SatNav.”

“OK,” Jack said, grabbing the biohazard overalls from one of the floor lockers and throwing them one after another to Lucy, Tosh, Gwen and Owen. “Everyone, get suited up, grab the gas masks on your way out - let’s go.”

While the others were still struggling with their overalls, Lucy shrugged the top of the overall onto her shoulders and walked over where Ianto still sat by Tosh’s station.

“Thanks, Ianto.” 

She zipped up the front and checked to make sure that the front pockets were also zipped.

“It’s my job,” he said with a shrug as he stood and glanced around.

“I know, but you still found her.”

Tosh and Owen brushed past - Jack had already passed, but now he stood at the entrance cage waiting for the others to pass.

“So, thanks and well done.”

Lucy smiled up at Ianto, heedless of Gwen standing awkwardly behind her.

“You should go.” 

Lucy made a face. He smiled, but gestured towards to the door, while looking pointedly back at her training charge.

Lucy glanced back, saw his point. She sighed, but nodded.

“See you in a bit.”

She turned to her mentee.

“Come on Cooper, first proper time out in the field. Rule 1. Listen to Jack. Rule 2, don’t get yourself killed - I don’t want all the extra paperwork.”

Gwen looked back at Ianto, as if to ask if Lucy was actually serious. He just smiled as she caught his eye. Poor girl looked worried.

“Rule 3, the Doctor lies - no, sorry, that’s rule number 1”

He smiled as the cog door closed behind the two women. That was Lucy - always telling her in-jokes, even though she knew no one would get the references. 

He adjusted his earpiece, settled himself in front of Tosh’s workstation, and got ready to start monitoring yet another retrieval. All in the days’ work.

A/N Since we don’t actually see anyone enter Carys’s front door in the wide-shots of Brook Street, and the close-ups aren’t actually filmed in the same location, I can’t be a hundred percent sure which is Carys’s address. However, given where the SUV is parked when they bring Carys back to her dad, I’ve narrowed it down to about three houses, and number 10 seems most likely.


	16. Chinese, While a Girl Fights For Her Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Rea, here’s the wolf bit. Hope I did it justice.

The retrieval went as smoothly as could be expected, and within an hour the team returned through the tourist office, Carys with them. The retrieval complete, Ianto shut up the tourist office and headed out into Mermaid Quay to pick up the Chinese takeout he’d ordered as soon as Jack had informed him they were on their way in. 

It was a pleasant day for a walk - not too cold, not too wet, the rain holding off for the moment - and Ianto slowed his pace accordingly. It wouldn’t do to arrive at the Chinese place before their order was ready, so as he walked along Bute Street, he paused and took in the shop windows, pausing to breath in the tangy sea air and noticing what he could about the various shops. Jubilee Pizza was advertising a new special, half off the meat feast for anyone who ordered their new Bayside Supreme combo - whatever that meant. St. David’s Shoes had a new poster up, proclaiming boldly that ‘My Shoes are On Top of the World” - and Agatha’s Antiques had a new window display showcasing “Vintage American Glassware” from several prominent American glassworks companies of the early part of the twentieth century. Why they were focusing on American glassworks when Cardiff had it’s own history…

Then the pistols caught his eye. Two glass pistols - one with a screw-top cover blocking the end of the barrel, the other plugged with a cork. Candy Containers - he remembered his Gran had collected old sweet dishes - the summer that he and his sister Rhi had vied for dominance, defending status and honor with the hollow empty pistols.

Before he even realized, he was inside the shop, reaching for the cork-stoppered glass gun. It fit well in his hand - and if he was right, the mouth of the barrel was big enough for a Malteser to fit, just like a bullet. He worked the cork out, ran his finger down the inside of the barrel - yes, it should fit perfectly well. He checked the price label - eighteen pounds. He hadn’t studied up on the prices of antique glassware in some time, but given inflation levels, that sounded about right. For a moment, he couldn’t decide which would be better - the screw-top or the corked barrel. Both were in very good condition. He ran his finger along the words stamped on the barrel of the screw-top, proclaiming this gun to have come from W. Glass Co, Grapeville Pa. The barrel of the corked pistol, on the other hand, was perfectly smooth. 

He and Rhihannon had spent hours and weeks alternately defending and attacking each other with their ‘sweetie shooters,’ as Rhi had insisted on calling them, and Ianto suddenly decided. Only one glass gun when he could have two would never do - he just had to get them both - one for him, and the other for Lucy’s desk.

One more quick sweep around the shop - the guns might be perfect for Lucy (well, ONE of the guns would be perfect - she was only getting one, he would keep the other in memory of his Gran), but she should probably have a larger sweets dish to hold the REST of her stash. Nothing else jumped out at him as being particularly Lucy-perfect - surely there would be something in the archives. Besides, it was time to pick up their takeout.

*** &&& ***

Fifteen minutes later, he walked in on the team. Honestly, he was gone three quarters of an hour, and they had already devolved into bickering children. 

Gwen was glaring at Owen, who was rubbing at her neck and pointedly looking anywhere but at her, Jack kept looking back and forth between them as if he couldn’t decide who he was more irritated at, and Tosh and Lucy were watching the whole thing with intense interest as if were yet another scene in the soap opera of Torchwood. Which, sad to say, was probably a reasonable summation of whatever it was that was happening.

Owen stamped over to his desk, crowding Tosh as he pushed past her.

“Newbie tried to strangle me!”

Given the doctor’s abrasive nature, Ianto didn’t know why he sounded so surprised. Lucy didn’t seem to either, since she just laughed.

“We’ve all tried to strangle you in the past.”

“Not on your first day, you haven’t.” He glared at Lucy, who meandered up the stairs, to the work platform, not even trying to pretend to be working.

At that, Tosh dropped any pretense of productivity.

“What did you do?”

“I...may have mentioned that I was impressed with her interrogation technique, that’s all.”

“Well then, you deserved it.”

Owen half rose from his chair at Tosh’s laughing barb, but Jack broke in before things could go any further.

“And as *I* pointed out,” Jack paused dramatically, and Ianto resisted the urge to roll his eyes, “throttling the staff is MY job. I’m all for delegation, but there are some things that I like to do myself.”

Jack always had to make everything sound...dirty. It was time to step in before things got out of hand.

“So!” 

Every eye turned towards the cog door (which none of them had even noticed when it opened several minutes ago) and where he stood with a box full of…

“Who’s for Chinese?”

*** ^^^ 888 ^^^ ***

As he’d hoped, the bickering natives (or was that ‘children’ - surely ‘natives’ weren’t so childish, though he supposed that depending on where they were native to) were easily distracted with the arrival of food, and the preparations everyone contributed to in converting the conference room into a dining room.

The take-out came in plastic containers, and once upon a time everyone would have just eaten directly from the containers, but somehow after Lucy had joined, they’d gotten in the habit of bringing out actual dishes to eat from - plates, cloth napkins, glasses (mismatched though they may be), and either tableware or chopsticks (for those who knew how to use them, which was Tosh and Ianto). It did make more work for Ianto, setting a proper table, but Lu was right - it did feel more like a home when they took the time to use actual place settings.

When Jack left following a particularly disgusting tale of the alien that left piles of black mucus in the bathroom (ironic that his final comment was about aliens having no sense of household hygiene - Ianto could think of quite a few humans who had far worse household hygiene habits than any alien he’d ever encountered), the rest of the team turned to Gwen, to see what she’d spill about what she knew about their enigmatic boss. 

 

She passed the test, as not telling a secret they all already knew really counted, and Ianto quietly sighed with relief. He was more than ready for everything to get back to the duller normal (if Torchwood normal could be called ‘dull’), when suddenly...

“What’s that sound?”

Ianto glanced over to look at the speaker the sobs were coming from. As Owen reached for the remote - almost relishing the reveal, Ianto thought slightly bitterly - Lucy stiffened and her jaw set firmly.

The CCTV footage of Carys, doubled over in the cells, sobbing her heart out popped up on the plasma-screen tv at the end of the table.

Gwen got up and went to stand by the monitor. She watched Carys for a minute, while jack came back from the loo and settled back into his seat at the head of the table.

“What are we doing eating Chinese while a girl fights for her life?”

Ianto risked a glance over at Lucy. This was not going to be pretty - though it might be interesting. Her hands were below the surface of the table but judging from the tension in her upper arms - in her entire body, actually - he would put money on his guess that they were balled up into fists. 

“Actually,” Jack’s voice broke in, and Lucy relaxed fractionally “while we’ve been eating the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys. Profiling her blood, metabolism, organs, skin, the works.”

Gwen just glared at him, while Lucy tensed again. Jack continued, explaining.

“So we can see what effect the alien is having on her. They’ve also been taking samples of the air in her cell, so we can analyse any changes in the air around her.”

“Now, is that enough? Do you want more? - ‘cause it gets kind of boring”

He was trying, Ianto had to give him credit for that. If it had been anyone but Gwen, maybe that flippant aside comment would have diffused the situation. For nearly a second, he thought it had worked. Then Gwen looked around at all of them, eyes full of misplaced pity.

“You’ve been hidden down here too long.”

Lucy was trembling, and Ianto remembered her worry the night before, where she had said she didn’t know what she’d do if Gwen “went off on one her more human than you rants.”

“Spending so much time with the alien stuff,” Gwen continued, oblivious “You’ve forgotten what it means to be human.”

He really shouldn’t have been amused - it really was inappropriate for Lucy to leap from her seat launch herself at the ex-PC, growling as if she had, indeed, forgotten how to be human. Ianto was on his feet, but with her on the other side of the table he had no chance at containing his flatmate. Fortunately, Owen was also on his feet, and before Lucy had even covered half the distance to the monitor where Gwen was standing, he had his arms wrapped around her, trapping her.

“Let me go!” Lucy yelled, blind with fury

Gwen’s eyes widened as she backed away into the wall behind her - nearly knocking the framed black and white photo down hanging behind her when the backs of her knees impacted the I-beam that lined the lower bit of the back wall of the room.

Lucy struggled violently in Owen’s grip, but Owen locked his own wrists together and settled in for the long haul.

“Let me go!” She fought with every muscle.

“Not until you calm down.”

Lucy turned her anger back on Gwen, who cowered against the wall, shocked at her mentor’s sudden transformation.

“I DAMN well know what it means to be human!” Lucy was still growling - a sound that was rather disturbing even to Ianto, who knew her rather well, and was clearly quite terrifying to Gwen. “How dare...GRRR...you have no clue! None at all!!!”

She spat the final words at Gwen, her lips pulling back almost of their own accord, baring her teeth and trembling with the force of it.

Jack had come around the table, and stepped in front of Gwen, facing Lucy down.

“Right now you’re acting more like a wolf than a human.” With his head up, his shoulders squared, his eyes staring into Lucy’s and his voice calm but very firm, Jack projected fierce calm at the fuming woman clasped between Owen’s arms. “Calm down and stop growling. She didn’t mean you.”

“I don’t care!” still, Lucy made a very visible effort and stopped growling. “We’re all damn well human! She can’t…”

Lucy still trembled with barely controlled rage, and Owen was not letting go of her while Gwen was in the room, but at least now the rage was contained, even if only barely.

Jack turned to Gwen.

“Gwen, just go and get on with some work.” Gwen looked nervously between Jack and Lucy, who was still glaring at her, though at least her teeth weren’t showing anymore. Jack stepped back, still between Gwen and her nearly-out-of-control colleague, but leaving enough room for her to pass him and get to the conference room door.

“Show us what it means to be human in the twenty-first century.” Gwen still hesitated.

“Go” Jack put a hand on the small of Gwen’s back and guided her out the door.

With Gwen out of the way, Jack turned back to Lucy. He nodded to Owen, who released his hold.

“AAARGH!!!!!!!” Lucy snatched her plate from the table and hurled it against the wall. Ianto cringed as it impacted the wall where Gwen had been standing, and shattered - spraying broken ceramic and sweet-and-sour sauce all over the grey beams, the cream flooring, and even the lamp on the side table and the ancient books in the edge of the room. 

Owen and Tosh fled Lucy’s wrath. Ianto could have handled it, but those books needed to be treated quickly of the damage would be permanent - he snatched them up and followed the others, leaving Jack to handle Lucy’s melt-down. 

At least that answered the question she’d raised the night before, of what she’d do if Gwen went on one of her more human than thou rants - as Ianto hurried down to the archives to collect the supplies to restore the books, he couldn’t help smirking as he remembered Lucy’s face. He had no intention of ever letting her live this one down. Ever.

**Author's Note:**

> Should probably mention that Dr. Ranulph Glanville is a real life cyberneticist, who in 2007 (the time period of this fic) was the vice-president of the American Society for Cybernetics. I know nothing about him beyond what a five minute Google search might turn up, and should probably state that his/the Society's rude response to Ianto's enquiry was entirely fictitious. I simply felt it unlikely that Ianto would have already been in contact with Dr. Tanizaki, and yet nothing have come of it for several months yet.


End file.
